Edition Scheffel - Blickachsen

now moved a light bench to the bank of the pond in the Kurpark in Bad Homburg, where at dusk it is doubled by the
reflection in the nearby water surface. A second bench that was especially designed for Bad Homburg was placed
under the trees right by the Siamese Temple. Here it invites the visitor to enjoy the charming chimes in the temple's
gable and the enchanting effect of the exotic architecture also during the daytime.
At the lake, as well as by the staffage architecture of the Siamese Temple, the bench may serve as common
requisite of the landscape garden inviting the visitor to the meditation of the sublime. The motif of the shining mountain
range, where the visitor has literally taken seat, represents this dialogue with nature, light and the sublime like René
Magritte's seemingly romantic paintings. Without trying to reproduce a veritable mountain range Gerhards chose his
panoramic views so that the seated person will “carry“ the massive mountains on his back while he “sits“ in the valley.
He seems to be floating on a raised hide and – as is characteristic of the pensive human – indulged into the mystery
of religious feelings or philosophical thoughts. “Memory“ is the cryptic title of the bench, the memory of the meaning
of life and of the utopia of faraway hopes for redemption and light, barred by square tube gratings.
Yvonne Goulbier, Nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit/ After Nightfall, 2001, phosphorescent colours, fluorescent
material, black light, light installation at the Bad Homburg Palace, location No. 8
Born in the spirit of progress and technical realizability in the late sixties, “the art of light tubes, lamps and
diodes came from the USA and conquered Europe … Beyond the realm of traditional forms of art it created an area,
where high culture and everyday art, profane advertising messages and sacred healing lights, material existence and
immaterial appearances, permanence and instability came together to meet in the diffused shimmer of inert gases”
(Alexander Marzahn). Colour and light, architecture and space, have to melt into light spaces, if one wants to make
every “axis of view” visible as in the time of the Baroque, which conventional sculpture and painting was not able to
achieve. Thus, Goulbier chose black light as her tool to achieve every changing self-illumination and every adjoining
“physicalness”, which light installations can do uniquely since the time of Moholy-Nagy’s experiment: “to paint with
direct light” instead of pigment.
The approach and valuation of the complexly built and often changed palace area of Bad Homburg took place,
as always, without any great structural intervention. Rather, she seeks to correctively intervene using her medium of
light, where, in the case of the original entrance, the axiality was given up for the benefit of purely functional deviation.
On the other hand, she eliminates every piece of personified history using bold veils (the last Baroque bust of Count
Friedrich II above the main portal), where, as far as she is concerned, the “light magic” of today would hesitantly meet
with such pieces. The preserver of historic monuments and buildings, who lives here, must welcome this light design,
as she herself works with such effects.
Goulbier rediscovered – despite all current interventions and distractions – the rising, original passage through
both of the archways up to the dominating Prince Portal, as the stage or base of its own triumph axis: From the “dirt”
and darkness of the street and the vault, the visitor is able to directly ascend, all the while maintaining visual contact
to the focused target of the apotheosis of the palace lords. Ceilings and walls of the freshly painted archways illuminate
in a consciously ashy, green accented tiredness. One is compelled to move forward by the (especially in darkness)
effect of the phosphorescent green of the second archway. All other light sources have been removed from here (historical
lanterns) and replaced with short wave black light bulbs. The walls and ceiling, with their fresh coat of paint seem
to have sucked in the luminescent paint, in order to give off more light in the room. Instead of using the main entrance
of today on the left, the visitor follows the suggested path of the artist straight ahead, where he is magically pulled along
by the artistically lit row of busts of Counts that are completely enshrouded in tulle. This is not lit up by lurid spotlights,
as was originally planned, but instead illuminated by special distant black light lamps that shine onto the busts from the
top of the opposite archway. During the day, the enshrouded heads are lit up in lurid pink, at night this is joined by a
green glowing design (from metal).
The “illumination” of the Counts heads with their own glaring light, by day and night, corresponds to the ceremonial,
historical veneration that the rulers demanded, placed - as they were - in their positions by the grace of God.
The focussed ascent of the visitor, who walks through a calculated light show, therefore corresponds to the historical
“pomp solennel”, the festive parade of the absolutists feudal lords. The “appareil magnifique” that belongs to this, the
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pageantry and ostentation, is answered to here by the reclaiming of pure, external pathos formula, the purity and clarity
of the “stream of light”.
Goulbier doesn’t, however, want an updated version of historical glorification, but rather, to present the experience
of the illuminated lights in the ambience of the architecture. She is seeking to stage a dream world. This effect
would have appeared to be even intensive in the (planned) “illumination using silky blue moonlight” of the large tower,
which towers above the court like a lighthouse: an effect that this tower already had itself since its construction. The
changing “light stations” decorated path of the visitors, from the low lying street up to the viewing terrace of the court
platform, will ultimately be determined by the character of the light itself: It is the search and the longing for the open
horizon, for illumination and freedom, the way from darkness into light that lies within every initiation that strives for
redemption.
Nigel Hall, Within and Without II, 1995/1999, corten steel, 245 x 250 x 135 cm, location no. 9
In 1998, Nigel Hall created “Great River“ out of red, embracing steel circles. Wavy, permeable “arabesques“
open up into space. The slant of the steel rings evoke the throbbing rhythm of flowing water in a riverbed. This work is
characteristic of Hall's working methods, as the material and its weight are not used as an end in itself but as expression
of naturalistic processes. Circular shapes dominate Hall's works, being the elementary signs of the forces Hall realized
in “First Light“, “Midday“ and “Hour of Dusk“. The rhythm of the day, i.e. time, corresponds to the respective open
or barred rounds of the steel circles; the clearer the vision through the circle, the more light is able to get through.
Similarly, Hall represents the principle of metamorphosis in the great sculpture in the Kurpark. The declining
slope of the lawn where it is set up suggests the continuous revolving of the steel sculpture. It seems to unroll in its
conic slant, following gravitation. Inside, two single shapes are a welded onto the circle, facing each other like spokes
of an axis or cutting teeth. A thinner slightly beveled element is “hanging down“ from above, while a thicker similarly
beveled element sticks up. Both vertical shapes leave plenty of space between themselves and the round of the walls.
At the same time, they deliberately “bar“ the opening of the ring that seems to originally have offered a free vision on
the landscape (like Claus Bury's “Auditory Canal“). “Inside“ the ring, the vertical walls/poles mark barriers and slots of
vision according to the position of the observer, whereas on the “outside“ the round of the circle may unfold itself unrestrained.
Another name of this work, “Soglio“ (“threshold“), underlines the disturbing embrace of round and vertical
geometric shapes. The circle is the entrance into an open landscape, a symbolic threshold into the cosmos beyond
erect fences.
John Henry, Fulcrum, 2001, steel, framed in colour, 1550 x 1420 x 650 cm, location no. 10
On the lawn between the Siamese Temple and the pond “Fulcrum“, the most massive sculpture of “Blickachsen 3/
Axes of View 3“, rises over fifteen meters up into the air. The sculpture may unfold itself freely into its monolithic height,
embedded in the rich green of the grass and the shrubs and trees in appropriate distance. Secured by several foundations,
steel blocks and sheets of different height and breadth meet in a diagonal range in the air, creating with their
intersections an extensive inner space. Even higher and steeper masts rise up into the air like antennas. In spite of its
balanced static arrangement, the whole steel construction seem like a metal sheaf in motion, in its diagonal order adjusting
itself to changing force fields depending on its location: a work in motion, a machine under voltage.
The potential of linkage and force, matter and energy, relates the sculpture to the avant-garde of constructivism.
“Fulcrum“ is a rearing architectural monument, freed from mass and gravitation, and with its “kinetic“ rhythm
permeating the airspace. Hence, it is far from being a fragile “house of cards“, but on the contrary, the artistically folded
free construction of a “building site“, where a flaring fulcrum has been installed.
The grounding is supplemented by the physical exploration of the surrounding sphere and the overcoming of
material limitations. The “heliotropic” aspect is emphasized impressively by the colour yellow. Not the glowing red or
orange common among the steel giants in contemporary art, but the brilliant colouring of the sun itself, tints the steel
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