Sculpture

‘Melting Point III’ visualizes humanities mistreatment of the environment by taking the turning point of the first industrial revolution and the invention and since then increased use of plastics into account. It further captures the state in which the relation between humankind and nature is currently in.

It is a series of four three-dimensional works consisting of broken old clocks, some of which were produced more than a century ago, stripped down to their core, the clockworks, and frozen at the minute in which they stopped working. The base of each assemblage is a one inch thick acrylic sheet with the clock based in the center and a PETG film nestling itself around the clockwork to create a vacuum which gives the viewer a warped vision of the clock.

The use of broken clocks is a reoccurring object in the ‘Melting Point’ series and symbolizes societies fragile concept of time which has, since the first industrial revolution, significantly increased in importance. The turning point for humanities perception of time began in the second half of the 18th century with the invention of the steam engine which paved the way for nine to five workplaces in big factories. Punctuality and time management became a necessity, making clocks and watches a requirement. The first industrial revolution also marked the beginning of humanities major mistreatment of the environment. The rural exodus led to unhealthy living conditions, filthy streets and demolition of natural landscape in and around the overcrowded cities. The coal-powered steam engine led to immense factory emissions which were released into the atmosphere unfiltered.

Furthermore the clock is a reference to the ‘Doomsday Clock’, which was created in 1947 by the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as a metaphor to represent the likelihood of a synthetic global catastrophe from unchecked scientific and technological advances. The clock is currently set to 90 seconds to midnight.

In 1862 Alexander Parkes invents the first plastic out of cellulose, five years later Fritz Klatte invents the first PVC plastic. Since then the use of said plastics have risen significantly, and, with the discovery of the a waste product of the chemical industry, chlorine, which was used to manufacture PVC in the mid twentieth century, the production, application methods and use exploded exponentially. Even after the discovery of its harmfulness to the environment the use of plastics has increased and is being brought to humankind in form of bottles, packaging and cigarette butts, and in a production mass of 400 million tons a year. The resulting trash accumulates entire islands in the pacific ocean with the size of up to 1.6 million square kilometers, or roughly 4.5 times the size of Germany.

The excessive use of recyclable acrylic and PETG plastic in the piece is a direct homage to humankinds, just as excessive, use of those materials. Them surrounding the broken clockworks is another analogy to the ‘Doomsday Clock’ and there is no time to spare to do something about humanities destructive relationship with mother nature. By embedding the non-working clocks in the plastic in a manner that seems to flow around and close in on them without a possibility to escape their fate the work suggests that it might already be too late to take action and that the complete destruction of the worlds ecosystem is inevitable.

“Der Müll der Pandemie” is a small scale sculpture with an aesthetic look as well as a social critique.

The 2023 manufactured piece with the German name “Der Müll der Pandemie” (Pandemics Trash) consists of an accumulation of trash equivalent to the daily waste increase of an average adult during peak times of the COVID 19 pandemic. Two face masks, one FFP2 and one surgical, one used COVID test, an empty bottle of hand sanitizer and all of their packaging is vacuumized between a half 1.2cm polycarbonate sheet and a PetG sheet using a vacuum former.

The work, like most of my recent works, is a critique to societies waste production, this time specifying on the increase during the pandemic. An average North American produces roughly 2,7 kg of trash a day, an average European 1.4 kg. During the pandemic the number has significantly increased by 0.1kg per average North American person per day, due to increased use of hygiene products and safety measures as well as a rise in individual traffic, online shopping and delivery services. “Der Müll der Pandemie” draws attention to this issue by showing the daily waste produced during the pandemic in a vacuum shell made out of more plastic. The excessive use of plastic is an homage to societies handling with this material and points out the needlessness of plastic packaging by wrapping literal trash as well as things that already have a packaging into another plastic film.

Stones are often attributed with power, emotions and abilities.,but in this piece the stones serve the purpose of exploration of shapes. The two sculptures carved out of two big pieces of soapstone depict, as an homage to simplistic architecture, two of the simplest shapes: spheres and squares. Made out of one solid piece the natural pattern of the stone is visible throughout the entire object and gives it it's unique look whilst being based on the simple shapes which can be found throughout all postmodern architecture.