Tragbarer Adapter für Starkstromzäune (Portable Adapter for High-Voltage Electric Fences)
Steel, aluminum, copper, lighting fixture, isolators, transformer, varnish, supporting frame; 70 x140 x150cm
Steel, aluminum, copper, lighting fixture, isolators, transformer, varnish, supporting frame; 70 x140 x150cm
Installation with four floodlight masts on the grounds of Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld; height 14m
For the group exhibition Transfer/Chilufim at Museum Haus Esters in Krefeld we installed four masts of approximately fourteen meters on the corners of the museum grounds. Each mast is equipped with a cross brace on which six strong floodlights are mounted and oriented according to classic stadium lighting conventions. Outside the museum opening hours, from the early evening to “prime time” at around 10pm, the floodlights create a brightly-lit space around the museum, setting it apart from its surroundings, making it visible and steeping it in an atmosphere of expectation similar to that at an important public event. The lighting distribution eliminates shadows, creating an artificial impression. The museum resembles a 1:1 model of itself, at once monumental and miniaturized.
Steel, rope, hooks, snap-hooks, carabiners, climbing gear, tents, sleeping bags, museum including curator and collection, wood, aluminum, textiles, rubber, tubes, varnish; variable measurements
Metareflektor Luftoffensive stages and performs the re-conquest of an ecosystem that has already been extensively over-researched: the museum as the space of art. Here the museum is explored with the same means used by researchers looking at the ecosystem of the rainforest. The air offensive proceeds from the top down, cautiously, without setting foot on the ground, so as to minimize intervention with the system under observation. The expedition begins with a helicopter lifting the research station to the roof of Kunsthalle Recklinghausen. The station will serve as a base from which we will penetrate from the roof down into the museum, using ropes and climbing gear to install a system of suspended platforms and walkways. Our route thus runs counter to the itineraries taken by museum visitors, who enter the building from the ground and then move upwards. Visitors will have no physical access to our construction. We are the exclusive users of the research station, which becomes a kind of myth in the visitors’ minds. The performance also seeks to incorporate the museum collection and uses its artworks as raw material. Our plans prompted the museum directors to select an iconic sample of works from the collection to be displayed for the duration of the performance. The pictures are hung according to aesthetic rather than art-historical criteria. On the ground floor we will present a video and photos documenting parts of the performance. Documentation by video and photos will continue with new material added as evidence of our sporadic visits to the station. By visiting and using the station we will alter the appearance of the installation—which remains unfinished, not complete. All individual performances are entirely random and will not be announced in advance.
Coupler print, wood, aluminum, caviar, mist generator, wheel loader; variable measurements
For an exhibition in the old works joinery in the grounds of the Krupp-Mannesmann Smelting Works a large wheel loader was parked right in front of the building. Its movable arm reaches through the window into the building, where the shovel attached to the arm serves as a sofa and invites visitors to take a seat. Several trees had to be cut to make the installation possible. Their remains were used to make a caviar fountain which along with fifteen black satin pillows and a color photograph forms part of the interior installation.
Ash wood, steel, varnish, glaze; 3.2 x10.5 x1.8m (helicopter), 11m (rotor disk diameter)
The sculpture is made entirely of solid ash wood. Using traditional timber framing and bentwood techniques, an exact copy of the Bell Ranger 407 helicopter was made. The rotors are turning slowly, as though the machine had just landed or was about to take off. Trying to determine what drives the rotors you find an archaic piece of machinery that links back to a nearby watermill. The heavy millwheel keeps the mechanism in motion. The installation is operated by the local citizen’s association Möllenkring, which also looks after the mill. The project was realized in summer 2005 for the Skulptur-Biennale Münsterland in Vreden.
Steel, aluminum, wood, varnish, fluorescent tubes, sound equipment; variable measurements
The installation’s external module consists of a hexagonal unit suspended from a mast at eight meters above street level, three large loudspeakers directed towards the city and a digital display panel for eight letters. All parts of the installation were designed as portable equipment. The recording station is situated inside the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum but close to the site of the external module. The recording station controls are self-explanatory, and operation requires no instruction or supervision. Visitors are invited to record a short acoustic work—to meet an expressive need—and make it publicly available. A random generator determines when the recordings are broadcast, so that the machine can send out signals at any time or not at all for several hours. The authors’ names are displayed in large letters on the panel; they do not remain anonymous. The selection of recordings is not filtered in any way.
Wheels, axles, camping gear, personal items (clothing, sleeping bags, food, etc.), steel, aluminum, wood, varnish, fabric, tarpaulin, pieces of iron hardware; variable measurements
Leftover fragments of the external module of Zentrale zur Verwaltung manifester Äußerungsanliegen were assembled into a campsite fully equipped with items of everyday personal use. The individual elements of the installation are loaded onto trailers forming a convoy that fills an entire room in the museum.