Viewed from the front, Wandering stands erect, still and powerful, a totemic Guardian of its beautiful settings. Approached from the side, the female-like figure seems to move forward purposefully with a gliding elegance and grace which belies the humble origin of its form.
I take my inspiration from natural material and discarded working tools, in which I find dignity and anthropomorphic qualities. The thoughtfully and beautifully designed original object which inspired the 2,50 m high sculpture is an old metal saw set tool, used to tune and sharpen saw blades.
In my artistic enquiry I explore the vitality of an animistic parallel world. The in-between states of objects fascinate me, when they are dislodged from the function they have been created for, but still vibrate with the energy transmitted by a lifelong usage. I’m interested in the emotional connections human beings develop with surrounding objects and the process of attachment which leads us to project a personified being onto an inanimate thing. Form and haptic sensations are essential to her work as they have the power to awake primal emotional responses through memory of touch.
In our fixation with modern technologies and virtual reality, the haptic quality of objects and tools has lost their importance. We have inadvertently designed away the more poetic and enduring characteristics of our material culture and developed a throw-away attitude. Through my work I invite the viewer to touch and rediscover the visual but also sensual beauty of the objects that surround us. What creates attachment? What makes something sacred, symbolic and powerful to us?
It is after completing a series of totemic sculptures, that I timidly realise the autobiographic significance of these hybrid creations, part human, part animal or machine. "It seems that the soul... loses itself in itself when shaken and disturbed unless given something to grasp on to and so we must always provide it with an object to butt up against and to act upon,” writes Michel de Montaigne, in 'Essais', 1580. I recall precious childhood memories: Growing up in Germany on a farm, I would draw energy and comfort from touching trees, rocks, water, soil, animals or just being in specific spaces. My sculptures are objects of solace. Anthropomorphic, hybrid figures, totemic guardians, powerful in their upright posture and stillness, yet radiating with a soft quivering energy. “Inner goddesses”, that helped me travel through a difficult period in my life by recognising and accepting an immense personal strength. I like to create sculptures of human size or slightly bigger, beings that the viewer can walk up to, get next to, measure up with, dialogue with.
