Once more, Eileen Koegler twists our imagination in Unlocking Life (2023), the firstborn of her brand new series of life’s tree sculptures. For the purpose of producing an iconic narrative, the artist anchors her surrealist subject on the threshold between reality and imagination, between the conscious and the unconscious mind.
Relying on unexpected juxtapositions, the torso of a trunk-shaped woman grows into malleable branches, from which hang vintage keys. These keys symbolize her feminine strength and support, which enable access to fruitful possibilities. Two opened padlocks caught in the branches testify to women’s empowerment to unleash and endorse life, a strong statement that gives the title to this bronze.
The textured sculpture’s wooden skin, established as a narrative site, tells the artist’s story engraved in the tree bark, recalling the ancestral human need to leave permanent traces, defying the ephemerality of existence. In a denuded state, Koegler discloses herself unmediated, and the straightforwardness of her message is probably what confers its mesmerizing character to this piece.