Edition Scheffel - Blickachsen

of the city hall of Dallas, USA (no. 6, 1977) and version no. 7 that is here to be seen (1979/80). The prism-like pair made
from polyester and tinted bright white are connected by a chain and a pole under water. Like “mother and child“ the
two are floating on the surface of the lake with asymmetrical proportions and concave backs. The underwater pole provides
a static distance so that the volumes will not touch each other even with stronger winds, but revolve around each
other like satellites. The floating, brilliantly polished texture of the bodies is enhanced by their reflection on the surface
of the water that doubles their shape and replenishes the bright white with the shining green and blue of nature.
Jaume Plensa, Amativite/Love Urge, 2000, steel, 275 x 177 x 60 cm, location No. 16
If you turn from the middle of the square called “Schmuckplatz“ downhill towards the Kurpark, you will come
across a cage-like, oversized case under the shade of a willowy tree. It is not a transparent cabine that can be entered,
as was the case in “Blickachsen 2/Axes of View 2”, (“Vier Möglichkeiten/Four Possibilities”), which provokes an associative-intellectual
reaction” (Uwe Rüth). In this previous work, the expressions were engraved above the doors, with
the choice to enter under that portent. It referred to the juice of life and the sense of taste, emotion and the behaviour
of consumption.
This new work deals with a porous, narrow steel box, which is patterned by a grating on the front and backsides
of it in equally sized squares (24 fields per side). On each of the points intersecting points, linguistically over-stylised
French expressions are engraved in the horizontal rods (15 per side), which could well stem from a textbook on psychological
behaviour. The words on the front and back exactly correspond to each other. They result in the syntax of
pairs of expressions such as “Philogeniture” (love of children) and “Configuration” (design), “Vénération” (respect) and
“Calcul” (calculation). There is no obvious connection between the words on the front and the back or indeed between
neighbouring expressions, but such consecrated words that are more intensive as any everyday language appeal to
memory and longevity.
“Just like the on the gable of the monuments or on a gravestone, the inscription raises the claim to have the
final say” (Daniel Abadie). Each of the contradictory expression couplings, leadings to a “Babylonic” confusion of
expressions, which only then obviously arises, when reason is replaced by feelings and love (Amativite).
The visitor who enters the gardens longing for beauty and quiet, distance and light, is thus thrust unsuspectingly
into an uncomfortable position. The unshakeable object of Plensa’s presents, instead, the “cage” of feelings.
Despite its openness, it is similar to a “sell in a monastery” (according to Lorand Hegyi) or perhaps even more so, a prison,
in which people who are governed by urges and desires are delivered their own ideas, imaginings, fictions and
memories.
George Rickey, Six Triangles, Hexagon V, 1979, polished high-grade steel, 63 x 174 x 174 cm, location no. 17
“Six Triangles, Hexagon V“ (1979) is one of George Rickey’s few sculptures at ground level. The kinetic scientist
Rickey, who lets motion take its course, freely defines this unusual solution as “maybe capricious variation with a
simple basic shape, similar to four- and five-leaf flowers that obey their intrinsic geometrical rules. The wind will move
their petals but will not change them except for turning them into the medium of a poetic message“ – the high-grade
steel sculpture moved by the wind as expression of an artistic, poetical abstraction. The proximity to nature inspired
the multiple artwork “Twenty nine squares“ of 1986 is obvious: twenty nine metal chips equal the leaves of a tree or
shrub.
“Six Triangles, Hexagon V“ that has a kind of precursor in the series around the “nimble squares“ of 1969, is
based on a rhythmically staggering pattern of triangular surfaces each of which is inclined toward the middle, their
short poles being attached to their undersurface and welded to a hexagonal frame. The triangles are arranged in a radial
pattern not touching their respective neighbour. In the (hexagonal) inner or outer outline of their semicircular diameter
they do not fuse into a ring either or even reach the same height. This way, the free standing of each basic shape
and the weight of each triangle remain visible. At the same time, the symmetry of three triangles on each side facing
118
each other in complete balance gives an impression of tranquility, corresponding to the inhaling and exhaling of an
organic body. Even when stationary, the triangles' funnel-like inclination towards the middle hints at a soft rhythm of
movement, as if they would open and close in harmony like the petals of a flower. Besides the association “flower“, the
work may also be seen as kind of a bowl or vessel. Here an ever vanishing content has to be refilled again and again
with scooping gestures. The principle of life is congruent with the desire for fertility.
These characteristics representing “living water“ are emphasized by its actual location within the entrance hall
of the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Bad: The protective shell of the neo-classical architecture grants the healing and inner fulfillment
supported by the house gods Hygieia and Asklepios.
Ulrich Rückriem, untitled, 1986, Swedish granite (diabas), cracked and cut, ca. 220 x 115 x 95 cm,
location no. 18
1. Concept
I seek the balance of matter and working method,
form, size and location.
The working methods are supposed to be visible.
Individual decisions are supposed to represent
general experience.
2. The Themes
a) A stone block is split up
and joined back together into
its original shape.
b) Unhewn blocks will be worked with
different methods
to bring out their intrinsic geometrical shapes.
c) Stone blocks in several pieces
will be joined together
by different working methods.
The three themes have been combined since 1979. They
may vary in singular works,
double works, in groups and in series.
3. The Material
Granite is volcanic rock.
The raw surfaces are brownish red,
the cracked and carved surfaces show light greyish
blue colours, the polished surfaces are of a dark greyish
blue reflecting the light and showing the inner structure
of the rock. The material is not supposed to be pretty in
order not to distract the observer from the shape.
4. The Shape
The selected shapes of raw rocks of different quarries
are supposed to be approximately geometrical.
The forms worked out by different methods are
geometrical shapes:
the singular cube,
the singular pillar,
119
the flat platform,
the crust
as a relief shape on a wall,
the natural wedge,
unhewn blocks with the outline of
a four-sided figure,
trapezoid or rhomboid.
5. The Measure
The measure of height, width and length
corresponds to the measure
of man,
inner rooms,
architecture,
landscape.
The measurements have an
inner logic amongst them.
6. The Techniques
The raw material is blasted out of with dynamite.
The block will be cracked down to
a certain size with drillings and iron wedges.
Cracking is processed
without loss of material.
The working object will be cut
with a rope or circular saw,
then partly polished,
both by loss of material.
I do not have my own studio.
Experts of the respective quarry and sawmill will
execute my works without hardly any manual work.
For the workings of the rock common
industrial processing techniques are used.
from: Katalog der documenta 8, Kassel 1987,
©Ulrich Rückriem.