Ricarda Mieth

kleine Fische [Small Fry]

2010

permanent installation
Kunst am Bau public art programme
Düppel Prison, Berlin

The "small fry" create a mise-en-scène of the narrow lightwell in the prison as an aquarium.

260 silicon fish are installed on a 9-metre-high mobile. The fish hang in the open air and move in the wind. The blue-tinted glass evokes water. The virtual biotope is illuminated from below when it grows dark outside.

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"A fish with no bones
is like a person with no faults"
(German proverb)

Aquariums are closed systems full of big fish and small fry circling around, absorbed in their own affairs, perpetually under observation. The fish in this aquarium are commercially available bait, just right for catching giant pike. Here they swim in a dry lightwell, far removed from their purpose, in an alien environment.

"Like a Fish out of Water"