A not-realized project from 1997 (Out of the Blue) demonstrates the shift toward more spatial organization of the photographic exhibits, while the loaded narrative, in this case related to the fish, remains in the focus of interest: The artist suggested (for Art Statements, Art/31 Basel 2000) here a sculptural installation for the room of approx. 30 – 35qm. A black, initially closed freight container measuring 250 x 350 x 60 cm was to be placed in the center of the room. The container is lined with black velvet and a large-format black-and white photograph installed therein. The photograph shows 3 heads of the St Peter fish, which has a strong symbolic relation to the artist´s statement. The biblical St. Peter who unites the promise of faithfulness (1), denial of the beloved person (2) and repentance (3) symbolizes therewith a ‘process of faith’, which in this case is occasionally revealed from the sensually comprehensible protection of the transport-container and -comparable to the apostolic mission of the fisherman from Galilee – is equipped for the artistic and human task.
The ‘doubling’ and ‘interpenetration’ of symbolic meaning is, in this case, deliberately used by the artist: The fish is mainly the symbol for Jesus Christ (fish=Greek IHTIS, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior). The symbol of the fish, one of the artist´s favorites, can retain a hidden ‘meaning’ even when the knowledge of the ‘conventional’ value which unites both parts, i.e. the picture and its significant, is lost. While the universality of this ‘primal’ symbol allows generalization and a spontaneous acceptance, this does not apply to the long line of symbols, which appears from occasion to occasion, from epoch to epoch. In this context, the artist relates to the circumstance that communication and therewith the art-understanding itself only happens partly instinctively and autonomously. The symbolic constitution of Sabine Kacunko´s work demands such an analysis of meaning, which forms a precondition for the development of the large-format photo objects. The mimetic-discerning, mythological-religious and historic-ethnological seizure of the ‘Pandora´s box’, which was actual meant here, interacts in the process of the symbolic constitution and offers an exciting effect of the sensually perceivable expression and the cognitive idea relating to it.
