This exhibition is about sculpture. However, sculptures are not the only works shown. It is important for us to address the following questions:
Where is the physical boundary? Unfinished structure #2 by Matt Calderwood seems as though it has gotten out of balance. Only water canisters can prevent the worst. The same artist addresses this task much more elegantly in another sculpture that is on display in the gallery beneath the arcades. For Santiago Sierra, the “presentation” of 111 minimalist sculptures becomes hard, physical work. Rodney McMillian found the bust of a white man that its unknown owner had painted black. Wear and tear had left behind white scars. The two photographs by Ruben Ochoa, on the other hand, tell of the struggle between man and nature (= sculpture).
What possibilities become available through transformation? Johannes Wohnseifer uses hallucination to craft a Rietveld chair from a variety of materials – or is it a bench? Georg Herold takes a somewhat easier path. With his Holz ohne Raum (wood without space), it’s easy for anyone to imagine what the room might look like.
What does material mean? For Lean back, Ruben Ochoa replaced wood with concrete on a mundane pallet sculpture. His positioning of the work makes clear that the case has been cleared “for eternity”. David Lieske also makes a material switch – with a completely different intention, that of exaggeration: A wooden bar salvaged from an equestrian obstacle is transformed into an everlasting museum work by being cast in bronze. Heimo Zobernig achieves exactly the opposite with the sculptures he created, using empty toilet paper rolls. Or cheap corrugated cardboard. Zobernig also fills minimalist cubes with canvases. Or he elevates the pedestal itself to sculpture.
A sculpture can also be used to elucidate natural phenomena. Quite obviously in 3D fivefold symmetry by Ólafur Elíasson. Quite complexly in the cube by Georg Herold.
Sculpture and architecture? Bojan Šarčević observed the path of the sun from within the sculpture. And Pae White developed a variable sculpture made from handmade, mercury-colored glass bricks.

Axel Haubrok

List of works

Matt Calderwood
untitled (White sculpture), 2008

Matt Calderwood
Unfinished structure #2, 2007

Ólafur Elíasson
3D fivefold symmetry, 2000

Georg Herold
untitled (Würfel), 1990

Georg Herold
Holz ohne Raum, 1988

David Lieske
Form I (The value of things), 2008

Rodney McMillian
Unknown #12, 2006

Ruben Ochoa
Exposed in the 90293, 2007

Ruben Ochoa
Lean back, 2007

Ruben Ochoa
Zoned out in the 90045, 2007

Bojan Šarčević
untitled (BS 1A–1D), 2001

Santiago Sierra
111 constructions with 10 modules and 10 workers, 2004

Pae White
NoéNoé II, 2003

Johannes Wohnseifer
Psilocybin experience, 2000

Heimo Zobernig
untitled, 1990

Heimo Zobernig
untitled, 1989

Heimo Zobernig
untitled, 1988

Heimo Zobernig
untitled, 1987