[Title] picnic in the North pole
[Artist] Jon Kessler
[Date] November 20, 2003 – January 13, 2004
Following 2002, this window display was created once again in collaboration with Jon Kessler. Against the background of a snow-covered mountain scene, there stand a mother reindeer and her child, looking as if they would come to life. Here unfolds a world of diorama in an American natural history museum. The last window to express the theme “The Mediterranean” stages the North Pole, which could not be further from the Mediterranean. How did this happen?
The mother and child reindeers, helpers of Santa Claus, stand bewildered in front of a ground where there seems to have been a picnic. Where have the people gone? The truth is that a couple had been enjoying a picnic on the snow, but left for the south of France when they could no longer bear the cold. To indicate this, the signpost,, which carries a fur coat in the front left, is marked with the names of towns in the Côte D’Azur. Nice, Cannes, Saint Tropez. The two must have headed in that direction.
With the snow-covered mountain in the background, two reindeers stand looking chic adorned in jewelry and scarves. It is a window display with the mood for Christmas. The deck of cards and the champagne cooler, lying upon the picnic mat spread across the snow, indicate how the couple had been enjoying themselves. At the same time, the map of France and the compass watch betray how they had been preparing to head for the Mediterranean to escape the severe cold.
A picnic on the snow. The mother reindeer stands with a horse saddle on her back. The signpost, in the North Pole indicates the direction of the towns in the south of France. It is a truly charming production by Jon Kessler, an artist full of humor.
Jon Kessler
Born in New York in 1957, Jon Kessler is an artist and Chair of the Visual Arts Department of Columbia University’s School of the Arts. His works are found in the permanent collections of many museums including New York Museum of Modern Art and Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. In Japan, Kessler has held private exhibitions in 1992 in Namba City Hall (Osaka) and Spiral Garden (Tokyo).