SFX: A jet fighter whines through the sky.  

NARRATOR:  

Airplanes hold the promise of flight. But not this one. It was made by Anselm Kiefer. He grew up in Germany just after World War II. Works like this were made out of his struggle to reconcile himself to his country’s troubled past. Real planes are engineered from light materials, but Kiefer made this jet bomber out of one of the heaviest elements he could find — lead.  

SFX: The war soundscape becomes slow & surreal.  

NARRATOR:  

Do you see that glass shape resting on the left wing there? It’s a crystal polyhedron, filled with ash. The shape alludes to the ancient practice of alchemy — whose central focus was transformation. Specifically, transforming lead into gold.  

KIEFER:  

Lead is the prima materia, that’s from — the alchemists, say, wanted to produce gold. So the first step was lead; and the next, silver; and the next, gold. So the lead is a spiritual material.  

NARRATOR:  

And not only that, lead is full of contradictions. It’s toxic, but it can also shield from radiation. It’s heavy and dense, but also malleable enough to shape into a sculpture. So maybe Kiefer’s plane begs a question: Can we find redemption in even the basest elements – or for that matter, the darkest of histories?  

SFX: Soundscape fades