The Raven of Crisis
Installation, 2009
In the spring of 2008 I wanted to create an installation about the Greek myth “Ganymede with an Eagle.” On the 19th of June I went to a taxidermy workshop to purchase an eagle, but I was told that the eagle was in the Red List of endangered species and was offered a raven instead. I agreed. I started to search through the toy shops in Riga to find something appropriate for the raven to carry in its beak. I didn’t find anything. Then I asked Biruta Auna to bring me a Superman from New York (it was not possible to find one in Riga). In 2008, Superman turned 70, because he was born in 1938 as a comic book character.
Consequently, Biruta purchased a model of the first Superman from 1938 in Brooklyn. The Raven was caught and stuffed in Latvia, and the Superman flew in from his homeland, the USA (he used a plane, however). I hung him from a gold (not real gold) chain and put him in the beak of the Raven. Both of them experienced the be- ginning of Financial Crisis of 2008. Maybe they can help us survive it.