In the last annual exhibition of Central Swiss artists, the Zurich-based artist Annemarie Oechslin (b. 1978), originally from Urn, was awarded the Lucerne Art Society’s Exhibition prize for her multi­media assemblage of photography and sculpture. Until then the artist, a graduate in photography from Zurich’s College of Art and Design, had chiefly been represented by works in the photographic medium. Sometimes she produces three-dimensional objects for her staged photographs, although in the past these have chiefly acted merely backdrops rather than being works of art in their own right.

Like the works shown in the annual exhibition, the appeal of the new installation, which bears the cryptic and associative title ‘jimjim’, lies in its ‘wit and poetic power’ (from the 2006 jury report). Enticed by a sweet melody – like a siren song – the visitor is invited to climb a wooden ladder to reach a cubic object floating in the space. The opening in the outer shell, which looks like a tree house, promises a glimpse of its mysterious interior…