The ambivalent combination of uncertainty and the promise of salvation, reflecting the basic human longing for security, is the subject of this sculpture. If religion points to the hereafter and the economy to gold as an eternally durable and secure material of stabilisation, it is art that defines questions instead of answers. Becksteiner transforms the sculpture’s original-sized gold ingots by casting them in the finest concrete and labelling them with the work’s title, serial number and edition number. The work, in the form of 999 bars, is stacked on a pallet and protected from access by grating.
