{"id":67308,"date":"2025-06-30T16:41:29","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T20:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/?p=67308"},"modified":"2025-09-13T22:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T02:24:21","slug":"upcoming-in-berlina-pandoras-box-of-lifes-struggles-and-wonders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2025\/06\/upcoming-in-berlina-pandoras-box-of-lifes-struggles-and-wonders.html","title":{"rendered":"In Berlin<\/em><\/font>
A ‘Pandora’s Box’ of Life’s Struggles and Wonders<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
A show and performance by Signe M\u00e4hler <\/em>(right) and William Cody Maher<\/em>, curated by Chiara Valci Mazzara<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A statement from the gallery:<\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Pandora’s Box<\/em> will bring together images and scenes, poems and life narratives by the German photographer Signe M\u00e4hler<\/strong> and the American poet William Cody Maher<\/strong>. The exhibition is to open July 3 and run through Aug. 2 in Berlin at the Kunstverein am Rosa Luxemburg Platz. (Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 45, Berlin-Mitte)<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Left: Hanging William Cody Maher’s ‘Timelines’ for the show.<\/em> Right: Several of Signe M\u00e4hler’s photos<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In several media \u2014 photography, video, poetry, and live performance \u2014 M\u00e4hler and Maher will introduce a world in which the personal and the universal intersect and mirror one another. The pair will explore how the story of a married couple can echo both global events and private memories \u2014 using the past as a lens to see and understand the present. Their work weaves intimate conversations and anecdotes into surreal, dramatic, ironic, and at times absurd depictions of life\u2019s struggles . . . and its wonders.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Together, they invent personas, costumes, and scenes that, in M\u00e4hler\u2019s photographs, blur the line between dream and reality\u2014offering an alternative narrative of their shared life and a poetic reading of the world. Maher\u2019s poems, presented as “Timelines,” trace conflicting truths and unexpected turns within their personal story while resonating with broader collective experience.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Signe M\u00e4hler<\/a> <\/strong>was born in Berlin in 1947. William Cody Maher<\/a><\/strong> was born in San Francisco in 1950. They have previously collaborated on two documentary films made in the United States: “Along Troubled Roads,” examining the political climate prior to Obama\u2019s election, and “Down Southern Roads,” which looks at the American South following Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. They also produced a short film on the writer and translator Carl Weissner, titled “Mit \u2018nem dicken Hals schreib ich am besten!”<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In several media \u2014 photography, video, poetry and live performance \u2014 Signe M\u00e4hler and William Cody Maher will introduce a world in which the personal and the universal intersect and mirror one another. The pair will explore how the story of a married couple can echo both global events and private memories \u2014 using the past as a lens to see and understand the present. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,26,18,4,20,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-67308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-books","9":"category-literature","10":"category-main","11":"category-media","12":"category-news","13":"category-political-culture","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/signe-mahler.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-hvC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67308"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70082,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67308\/revisions\/70082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}