Caspar Berger, Beeldhouwer

It is often said that desire itself can be a more beautiful thing than its object. The object is the essence of the desire. Yet once one has arrived at the essence, the moment in time becomes subject to decay. All that remains is the memory as an element of the world surrounding the essence.

Kavalier came about in response to the story of Der Rozenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose), in which the rose, as a symbol of the desire for a brief moment of ultimate passion, contrasts so starkly with the subsequent decay. In this silver object, the space around the rose has literally been captured, as the phantom of a passing moment. Here Kavalier does not pay homage to the essence, but communicates what is around it, thus delineating the desire for beauty, the engine of life.