Jonas Burgert

Waffenschwestern (or "Weapon Sisters") is a painting about female power, and the polar instincts of intimacy and aggression. Six women are gathered together in a strange environment, their dress and choices of weapon each representative of a different moment in time from prehistory to the present. They sit, squat and stand calmly as if debating some sort of violent offensive, the cue for which will come from the central figure caught within the blue crosshairs. Strange creatures move between them, while behind, on a mazy backdrop of golden, latticed wallpaper, hangs a constellation of spherical forms; a conscious juxtaposition on the artist's part of "the meditative chaos of nature and the interrelated elements of human cultures". A fantastical cast of characters, both animal and human, keep watch over a glowing white orb; the prize of the Mondjäger (or "Moon Hunter") referred in the painting's title. The elaborately layered scene, with its dramatic lighting, exotic costumes and sweeping, stage-like staircase, is wonderfully theatrical. "To do something strange, like pick up a planet, it is first necessary to change one's mind and body to become a part of a ritual," says Burgert. "One needs spiritual copies of oneself in order to havea dialogue between one's inner characters."