2007

öffentlich zugänglich

Zentraler Platz am Ver­kehrszentrum des Deutschen Museums, 80339 München

Fiberglas bemalt

Architecture: Sandmeier, Adolphs und Grünberger

Photos: Florian Holzherr

Text: Heinz Schütz

When Jason Rhoades was invited to create a work of art for the plaza in front of the  Deutsches Museum’s transit hub in the city’s new district of Theresienhöhe, there was a suggestion that the theme of “worldwide speed” should be addressed. Rhoades came back with a snail, a creature known as a metaphor for slowness but one that is also extremely mobile, since it “carries its house on its back.”

The Sweet Brown Snail is a monumentally sized enlargement of a bric-a-brac snail and closely associated with a series of other works of art. In the late 1990s Jason Rhoades worked with Paul McCarthy (both renowned artists are from the American West Coast) to develop the so-called Proppositions. At first glance, the title looks like a misspelling of “propositions.” But it can also be read as a mix of “prop” and “position,” which can be interpreted as referring to “property, as it relates to its position,” or “property brought into position.”

One of the Proppositions consists of the inventory of knick-knacks in a kiosk, which the two artists bought up in its entirety and then sold again in an artistic context as Proppositions. The Sweet Brown Snail is modeled after a snail in the kiosk’s inventory. By turning this small knick-knack made to decorate domestic interiors into a large, fiberglass sculpture and placing it outdoors in public, the artists play with emotions and proportions. The snail’s cuteness stands in opposition to its awe-inducing size. Next to the snail, passersby look small, and yet the adorableness of the knick-knack does not vanish. The Sweet Brown Snail aims for emotional identification and rational distancing. At the same time, in an era of accelerating speed, it is an ironic emblem of the transit hub on the other side of the plaza.