A Pleased Interview With Anke Eilergerhard About Her Fluid Sculptures
Surreal and stimulating all our senses, repetitive movements, vivid colors, irregularity, and forms that challenge the attraction …
I had a pleasant conversation with the sculptor Anke Eilergerhard, where Anna Laudel Istanbul is hosting her silicon works until 27 December 2020.
I would like to thank Naz Türkmen for her support, Anna Laudel Istanbul team, and sculptor Anke Eilergerhard, who spent her time for our readers.
Pleasant readings.
Anke Eilergerhard İle Akışkan Heykelleri Üzerine Keyifli Bir Söyleşi
How would you introduce yourself to Sanat Okur readers and Turkish art lovers?
Anke Eilergerhard. I am a contemporary visual artist and live in Berlin.
My observations and experiences form the basis of all my work. I aim to make visible things that I cannot put into words, but are universal. Human emotions such as longing, desire, lust, passion, fear, as well as impermanence and balance are central to my interests.
As a metaphor, cake has an important place in my artistic work for over thirty years. The formal beauty of whipped cream mounds since 2004 has been the focus of my work. Whipped cream is the perfect sculptural shape for me. There is a cosmic feature in him that reflects the longing for heaven.
Inspired by the shape of the whipped cream, I developed my special artistic technique. Like a pastry maker, I transform whipped cream mounds tens of thousands of times with my hand from pigmented polyorganosiloxane, a kind of silicone, into a sculpture. Polyorganosiloxane, which is popular both in decoration and in aesthetic surgery for correcting visual imperfections, is an excellent art material for me in this context as well as its physical properties. Poliorganosiloxane gives me the opportunity to create artworks that look fragile and delicate, but are extremely durable and robust.
Basic form, surface structure, color and name; these are all ingredients. They have the same value in the development process. Layering of abstract, often reduced basic forms such as sphere, hemisphere and radius on top of each other, surface structure, color and name defining that emotional moment; these create the emotion of the object. Thus, the abstract plastic body turns into a description. Neither color nor shape override each other; everything comes at the same time.
I take it as a compliment that some viewers believe they are machine made, as my sculptures look smooth and flawless as if they were molded. However, precisely shaping each “whipped cream mound” like a miniature is a difficult creative action.
Deep questions are often hidden in the facts and motives of daily life. We live in a highly visual society and nothing can be deceived more than sight.
While you challenge the viewer with the forms of your artworks, you also satisfy them with your color transitions. Do you particularly prefer to activate all of our senses? Does this create a concern for the art buyer?
I’m basically asking three questions about my art: Is it independent, has a strong expression, is it unique? I try to arouse the attention of the viewer through the association of seemingly familiar objects and basic stimuli. A work of art comes to life only when the viewer looks at it. Dialogue creates emotional or intellectual experience.
However, I do not want to give instructions on how to read my works. Everyone can dive into it with their own methods and means.
Which materials do you use to produce your artworks?
For my sculptures: Poliorganosiloxane, porcelain (precious coffee sets), ceramic, stainless steel, paint.
My favorite material is highly pigmented poliorganosiloxane. It has many advantages; Despite its very fragile, swaying and compromising appearance, I can still create works of art that are very robust and resistant to impact, heat, light and cold.
Did you have any concerns during the production process of your work? If you did, what were they?
No. Sometimes, when I am making my sculptures, the colors look so delicious that I feel like throwing a bite at them and I have to resist this urge.
You play with our aesthetic perception with your sculptures and make us think with the objects you use. What are the messages you want to convey to your audience with your works?
Look at them. Think. Don’t be fooled and enjoy your life.
How is the Covid19 process reflected or still reflecting on your productions? How do you manage stress and anxiety?
Yes. For a long time, I have been on the lookout for answers regarding digital art perception, which has become even more important due to the current crisis. How physical and how literally should works of art exist? What does “reality” mean in the reality of digital diffusion and perception? What does the digital perception of art turn into and those who perceive it? It is a completely different situation for the audience to experience art with others at an exhibition opening or in a volumetric space designed for this purpose in a museum; Looking at an image of a work of art on a small 5 x 5 cm screen during a daily social media tour is quite another thing. Will our perspective change? Will the art change? What will remain, what will disappear?
If I want you to evaluate the impact of the current situation on the art market, what would be your predictions for the status quo and the future process?
Due to the pandemic, art fairs were canceled, galleries and museums were closed. This will definitely accelerate the online growth trend in the art market. However, it should not be underestimated that selling art is a human work. The personal relationship and trust between the gallery and the collector is important.
How do you feel about being in Istanbul and presenting your sculptures to Turkish art lovers?
I am so grateful that I was able to travel to other countries and cities with my art and through my art and to get to know their inhabitants in ways that would not be possible as a “normal” tourist. International dialogue is always an adventure and enriches. It is especially interesting to me that people see something completely different than I thought.
Istanbul immediately impressed me. The city has an extraordinary vitality. There is tremendous creativity in this city. As I love patterns and ornaments, I find the oriental handicraft tradition that comes to life in art and design particularly inspiring.
Finally, is there anything you would share with the Turkish art lovers?
True to my slogan “A cream cake is a piece of heaven on earth” I can say this: Forget the madness of the world, even for a moment, through art.
