Palm Spirits

The sculpture, which Szeemann created as part of her exhibition at the Museo Casa Rusca, consists of various elements of the different growth stages of palm trees: young stems, old leaf sheaths, different flowering stages and bracts. The bronze elements, distributed in a circle, resem- ble a silvery charred fire, a ghostly apparition of solidified palm trees. The title of the work Palm Spirits echoes Szeemann’s ongoing interest in the transcendental and spiritual phenomena, or as she describes it, “the fascination with the clicking, rhythmic sound palm fronds make in little or no wind while others stand still, like a Morse code of spirits I want to decipher, and the idea that these bodies act as mediums, vessels for entities from beyond.”

Rapahel Gygax, curator of the exhibition Continuiamo a tornare in quel luogo Museo Casa Rusca, Locarno

Bronze, silver nitrate patina 106 x 95 x 70 cm
(Photographs: © Servizi Culturali Città di Locarno, Cosimo Filippini Museo Casa Rusca)