Front view
Inv. No.S-1246
ArtistBenjamin Eichhornborn 1982 in Austria
Title

"In Deckung"

Year2010
Medium

cleaver sewn into fabric

Dimensions15 x 35 cm
Editionunique
Comment

Benjamin Eichhorn playfully thematises and ironises death. The potential murder tool is wrapped in a fabric covered with floral patterns. The fabric pattern evokes associations more with pleasing interior furnishings than with a dangerous murder tool, as the title of the work Corpus delicti suggests. The contradiction between the packaging and its form, between outside and inside, is reflected in a cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance arises when two cognitions (insights) that exist simultaneously in a person contradict or exclude each other. Experiencing this dissonance leads the person to strive to resolve this state of tension. In this case, it evokes an uneasy feeling in the observer, comparable to the wolf in sheep's clothing.
Corpus delicti ("body of the crime", Latin corpus - body, delictum - crime; plural: Corpora delicti) was used in the early modern period to describe the external characteristics in which a criminal offence is expressed, especially a piece of evidence through which a particular perpetrator could be convicted of a crime. Historically, the doctrine of corpus delicti originated in the evidence doctrine of the canonical Italian inquisition process of the 13th century, which advanced into German criminal procedure law in the course of its reception (wikipedia).
(Christoph Fuchs, 2021)

S-1246, "In Deckung"
Benjamin Eichhorn, "In Deckung", 2010
S-1246, Front view
© Benjamin Eichhorn
S-1245, Benjamin Eichhorn, "Corpus delicti", 2012
Benjamin Eichhorn, "Corpus delicti", 2012
more infoS-1245, Front view
© Benjamin Eichhorn