Artwork description forthcoming.

A Wiesel tank, whose military hull is surmounted by a fragile church window: *Deus ex Machina* brings religion and the machinery of war into a disturbingly beautiful alliance. The work draws attention to the historical intertwining of faith, power and violence – to weapons that have been blessed, wars that have been sanctified, and violence that has been legitimised in the name of a higher order. The sacred meets the martial; glass meets steel; salvation meets destruction. And suddenly, an uncomfortable question hangs in the air: if humankind legitimises its violence through God – who then saves it from itself?

Rocco and his brothers moulded 1,000 ingots from 100,000 face masks – a bitter reversal of what a national reserve was actually meant to protect. The work was created in response to the procurement of masks during the coronavirus pandemic and the associated political and economic scandals. A symbol of protection becomes a currency; the crisis becomes a business. The masks literally become ‘gold’ – and the ingot a monument to a time when the question arose as to what a human life is worth and who profits from putting it at risk.