Seated Man 54

The Hessenpark Open-Air Museum – in which over a hundred historical buildings give an insight into the history of everyday life in Hesse – has this year for the first time been included as a location for “Blickachsen”. Three larger-than-life figures by the British sculptor Sean Henry are exhibited in the museum’s marketplace: “Catafalque”, “Seated Man” and “Standing Man”. Additionally, a number of smaller sculptures and drawings by this renowned artist are on display in an accompanying exhibition. Sean Henry’s painted ceramic and bronze sculptures depict human figures in contemporary clothing – often anonymous and always presented as either larger or smaller than life-size. This change of scale breeds intimacy − the sculptures exist alongside us, but go beyond the narrow limits of simply imitating life through subtle changes to scale, colour and material: “In creating sculpture”, the artist emphasizes, “it is the inner life of the people I choose as my models that interests me, rather than their extrinsic details.” In the Hessenpark, Henry’s figures now form a bridge between the history of daily life in Hesse and the here and now of the visitor.