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Michael Schuster
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Golgatha, 2008

The Austrian artist applies a can of Pattex spray-glue with the advertising slogan "No More Nails" respectively to three simple oak crosses, denoted by the caption INRI as crucifixes, instead of the Jesus figure. Combining all this into a readymade ironises its individual components: the implicit hypothesis, that the Christian saviour could also have been crucified without nails but solely with glue, comes over as being as grotesque as it is blasphemous. The title and the organisation of the triple grouping Golgotha point laconically to the historical place of Jesus' crucifixion, a hill outside Jerusalem, and to his crucifixion together with two robbers – Schuster's artistic strategy is here frivolously blasphemous, if not openly provocative.

Michael Schuster, * 1956 in Graz (A), lives and works in Graz (A)

Michael Schuster, Golgatha, 2008
oak crosses with aluminum spray can
3 multiples from edition No More Nails, 2005
56 x 25 x 8 cm
courtesy Artelier Contemporary, Graz
photo: Michael Schuster