Only with Wind, Time, and Sound

Only with Wind, Time, and Sound (Nur mit Wind, mit Zeit und mit Klang, 1997) is part of a series of large-format works featuring pyramids and other large ancient structures. Kiefer began the series (which also comprises books) in 1996, drawing his inspiration from photographs taken during his travels through the Americas and Asia. Tall buildings and towers are particularly meaningful in the German artist's work; as in the ancient Egyptian world, where pyramids were considered to be places of transit between this world and the next, Kiefer describes these monuments as being between "heaven and earth." The title of this piece-which appears in an inscription above the pyramid-was taken from the poem "Exile" by the 20th-century Austrian poet Ingeborg Bachmann. Like Bachmann, who experienced World War II as a child, Kiefer bases a large part of his work on distant, ancient wars to brood on the destructive cycle of history.