I am Fire and Water – Ursula Reuter Christiansen

Over the course of six decades, German-Danish artist Ursula Reuter Christiansen (b. 1943) has created sculptures, paintings, films, performances and installations. Now, late in life, she is on the brink of her international breakthrough. In her works, beauty gives way to the poignantly powerful and uncomfortable as she brings to life the fears and longings which are not only her own but part of the human condition.

In this richly illustrated book, which accom- panies the exhibition ‘I Am Fire and Water’ at the ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark, Associate Professor of Literature Lilian Munk Rösing examines aspects such as the strong connection between Reuter Christiansen’s art and the realm of literature, particularly that of German Romanticism. In a poetic and personal text, the artist depicts life itself and the state of the world as a journey along a knife edge, with hope and hopelessness yawning on either side. Sooner or later we will fall, she writes, but into which of the two abysses?