The installation in Public Space With A Roof was consisting of several elements:

The quotation from the Tao te Ching : ”Do not display objects of desire” was mounted on the floor and above this on the wall was hanging a painting with a deep red glowing irregular form on a dark painted background. Over this painting I placed a print on translucent paper depicting a 200 times enlarged technical drawing of the structure in which the famous diamond the Koh I Noor had been originally cut by hand in India. This masterly cutting, which followed the natural irregularities in the raw stone, was destroyed by the English, who wanted to have a more sparkling, shining jewel and for this reason Queen Victoria let recut the Koh I Noor around 1850.

Three small pictures were installed in the entrance space and a tale about the different values put on precious stones and human life, based on the dramatic history of the Koh i Noor which I found in “The Manual for Diamond Experts”.

For the Floor Drawing project I made a series of white chalk drawings on the grey stone floor just after the doorstep of the gallery entrance. Each morning before the opening of the exhibition I worked on a new geometrical drawing depicting an ancient cutting from a famous diamond, so as the Koh I Noor, the Orloff, the Blue Crown diamond and the Hope. The dimensions and the position of the drawings forced the public to walk over them by which they slowly caused the chalk-drawing to be erased.

My intention was to receive so many visitors a day that each drawing could be entirely rubbed away.

The last day I decided not to draw another gem-stone but to finish the sequence with a draught depicting the diamond structure itself: carbon atoms with their electrons in a crystal grid.

Do not Display Objects of Desire II 2004

The artwork is questioning the value and power which are given to rare materials like the famous diamond The Koh-I-Noor. It consists of three components: a blown up image of an old technical drawing, depicting the way in which this gemstone was originally cut in India, accompanied by a quotation of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, 400 BC "Do not display Objects of Desire" and a tale, which is a curious mix of history and myth making about the unmeasurable values and mythical power, credited to this precious stone (“The Manual for Diamond Experts”).

The installation was shown during the Malmö festival 2004 in the shopping area of the inner city. It was a perfect location where ten-thousands of passers-by had to face my installation on their way to shopping and entertainment, to fulfill their heart's desire.