Even the most accurate representation or display of an object taken directly from reality acquires a further, metaphorical sense as soon as it is transported into the domain of art. So nothing is more surprising than an encounter with work that succeeds in escaping metaphor, or at least—as with one of the three large installations in two recent exhibitions by Not Vital, which also included a series of sculptures or objects—in handling it in an unusual fashion. One of the installations in Zurich was titled The Golden Calf, 2001—an allusion, of course, to the biblical tale in Exodus