ART in the City - Bremen
Ewerdt Hilgeman - Bremen
“All art needs to posses an irrational quality - no matter how rational the methods were in order to generate
it”
The
imploded CUBE in by the German-Dutch concept artist Ewerdt Hilgeman invites the
onlooker to contemplate illusion of stability and solidity by confronting them
with the results of a transformative process, where the steel cube as a somewhat
solid and immovable object meets with an unstoppable and potentially
destructive force, in this case air.
When
the geometric structure was first installed in front of the Kunsthalle in
Bremen, the 2 x 2 x 2 cube made of stainless steel started out as a regular
hexahedron bounded by six square faces in perfect octahedral symmetry. Since
then, it has undergone a considerable metamorphosis. Despite its still gleaming
surface, it now looks as if some giant has taken a baton to it. Deformed,
imploded, and bent – it folded under pressure, when all the air was
mechanically removed from the cube. Despite its apparent unpredictability,
producing dents and creases in the steal seemingly at random, the method is not
an act of arbitrary vandalism, but carefully controlled scientific study in
reduction that adds to the complexity of the object’s shape. The implosion
creates a negative space within and creases at odd angles, seemingly at random,
without. Even though it is still possible to infer its once cubic structure,
the onlooker is now confronted with something that yielded to a superior force,
shrouding the monochrome stainless steel structure in an aura of vulnerability
and frailty. At the same time, however, the imploded cube makes tangible a
powerful physical force, visualizing how air, this essential and deceptively
soft element of life, becomes a destructive force, that makes even steel bend
to its will, subjecting itself to natural laws.
Having
collapsed in itself, the imploded cube, thus, unites apparent opposites: While
looking somehow diminished, the stainless steel remains captivatingly solid,
imperfect in structure but paradoxically pristine, strangely bent, but at the
same time powerful, provoking the viewer to contemplate its perfect
imperfection.
“All art needs to posses an irrational quality - no matter how rational the methods were in order to generate it”
The
imploded CUBE in by the German-Dutch concept artist Ewerdt Hilgeman invites the
onlooker to contemplate illusion of stability and solidity by confronting them
with the results of a transformative process, where the steel cube as a somewhat
solid and immovable object meets with an unstoppable and potentially
destructive force, in this case air.
When
the geometric structure was first installed in front of the Kunsthalle in
Bremen, the 2 x 2 x 2 cube made of stainless steel started out as a regular
hexahedron bounded by six square faces in perfect octahedral symmetry. Since
then, it has undergone a considerable metamorphosis. Despite its still gleaming
surface, it now looks as if some giant has taken a baton to it. Deformed,
imploded, and bent – it folded under pressure, when all the air was
mechanically removed from the cube. Despite its apparent unpredictability,
producing dents and creases in the steal seemingly at random, the method is not
an act of arbitrary vandalism, but carefully controlled scientific study in
reduction that adds to the complexity of the object’s shape. The implosion
creates a negative space within and creases at odd angles, seemingly at random,
without. Even though it is still possible to infer its once cubic structure,
the onlooker is now confronted with something that yielded to a superior force,
shrouding the monochrome stainless steel structure in an aura of vulnerability
and frailty. At the same time, however, the imploded cube makes tangible a
powerful physical force, visualizing how air, this essential and deceptively
soft element of life, becomes a destructive force, that makes even steel bend
to its will, subjecting itself to natural laws.
Having
collapsed in itself, the imploded cube, thus, unites apparent opposites: While
looking somehow diminished, the stainless steel remains captivatingly solid,
imperfect in structure but paradoxically pristine, strangely bent, but at the
same time powerful, provoking the viewer to contemplate its perfect
imperfection.
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