What constitutes a sculpture? Is it the three-dimensional spatial feature? Is it the condition of observe from multiple perspectives by walking? Or Is it the construction material, extraction material, model or casting material of the artwork?
In the sculptures of Kai Schiemenz (b. 1966 in Erfurt, Germany) there are two core concepts: surface and process. Each piece was once another object: types of rock/stone or polystyrene blocks were made into stained glass through silicone molds; computer graffiti was eventually transformed into ceramic tiless; Or perhaps the concrete base has become an independent sculpture in the new environment. In addition to those two core concepts, they also include the concepts of architecture and urban space, from which these abstract objects are derived.
The production of Kai Schiemenz's sculpture works requires a lot of time: from the initial conception to the final work, it often takes several months, especially the glass molding program invented by Kai Schiemenz himself is very long and time-consuming. In the first step of the work, the artist creates a model using materials such as polystyrene or wood in the studio, determines the shape and size, and conceptualizes colors. This process is often fast, emotional, and spontaneous, but the subsequent process will become complex, and Kai Schiemenz himself can only control this process within a limited range.
For many years he has teamed up with the glass workshop of Zdeněk Lhotský(*b. 1956 in Prague, Czech Republic) in Bohemia (Czech Republic), where the specialists translate his three-dimensional sketches into glass. But the results are always unexpected, the decisions can no longer be reversed, colour is also turn out other than expected.
In addition, the auxiliary materiahgbls for making sculptures, objects, residues, and fragments generated during the production process of finished products are not just simple by-products. Kai Schiemenz will use them to create new sculptures and give them new life. Everything is part of one work. It is precisely for this reason that the uniqueness of the surface of the work plays a role, and each object's surface leaves traces of its creation - cuts, grooves, traces of files and other tools, solidified liquids, seams, and fractures - which also become an indispensable part of the work.
This applies especially to the work-group of stones, which are like strange discoveries from nature at the exhibition site. In fact, these stone carvings are based on natural forms: large pieces of basalt come from a quarry in Saxony, but after manual processing, due to their state, they can no longer be used as building materials. Through the transition between post molding and glass casting, these stones lose any reference to their formation age or discovery location. They give the impression of crystals discovered here or there, but they also resemble handmade artistic products.
This game between real or hypothetical natural materials is also reflected in the artist's multicolored glass products, where he deprives glass of the typical characteristics of the working material and uses it to create some novel things. Here, glass is neither a smooth, transparent, fragile container nor has any protective function. Instead, this auxiliary decorative material transforms into a cold but soft, closed, and translucent body. Light does not completely penetrate and does not refract on the surface. On the contrary, it causes objects to emit a light from the inside out.
With the help of the industrial studio,Kai Schiemenz once again created flat ceramic works, which also played a game of comparing artificial materials with natural materials.Glazed wall-tiles made of clay – a natural material used for thousands of years – serve in reality as a decorative cladding for industrial coal-fired furnaces or stoves and are here re-purposed as flat jigsaw pieces in order to assemble digitally drawn collages into relief-like images.
The artist found the idea for the motif of the playing-card symbols, which are used as movable pieces in the pictures. On social media, poker games with a century old history and a wide cultural background, as well as products and performances derived from poker, are now regarded by influential people as a source of income.
The wall tiles that originally belonged to popular products have become unique objects, decorations have become artworks, simulation games have become digital products, and digital products have been brought back to the material realm. Here, everything has returned to its original point, returning to a fragmented presentation. Because these images are composed of overlapping forms, they no longer display whether they are complete patterns or sections, and whether they belong to positive or negative space.
In the current exhibition, Eye Height, Kai Schiemenz presents the diverse objects as if in a park landscape, through which gallery-goers can stroll. He renounces elevating pedestals either completely or in favour of flat plinths, which become part of the work and complement it. There is always a relationship with the human body and its dimensions – an eye-level on which visitor and work of art face one another.
