Ohne Titel 18

1. Concept
I seek the balance of matter and working method,
form, size and location.
The working methods are supposed to be visible.
Individual decisions are supposed to represent
general experience.

2. The Themes
a) A stone block is split up
and joined back together into
its original shape.
b) Unhewn blocks will be worked with
different methods
to bring out their intrinsic geometrical shapes.
c) Stone blocks in several pieces
will be joined together
by different working methods.
The three themes have been combined since 1979. They may vary in singular works,
double works, in groups and in series.

3. The Material
Granite is volcanic rock.
The raw surfaces are brownish red,
the cracked and carved surfaces show light greyish blue colours, the polished surfaces are of a dark greyish blue reflecting the light and showing the inner structure of the rock. The material is not supposed to be pretty in order not to distract the observer from the shape.

4. The Shape
The selected shapes of raw rocks of different quarries are supposed to be approximately geometrical.
The forms worked out by different methods are
geometrical shapes:
the singular cube,
the singular pillar,
the flat platform,
the crust
as a relief shape on a wall,
the natural wedge,
unhewn blocks with the outline of
a four-sided figure,
trapezoid or rhomboid.

5. The Measure
The measure of height, width and length
corresponds to the measure
of man,
inner rooms,
architecture,
landscape.
The measurements have an
inner logic amongst them.

6. The Techniques
The raw material is blasted out of with dynamite.
The block will be cracked down to
a certain size with drillings and iron wedges.
Cracking is processed
without loss of material.
The working object will be cut
with a rope or circular saw,
then partly polished,
both by loss of material.
I do not have my own studio.
Experts of the respective quarry and sawmill will
execute my works without hardly any manual work.
For the workings of the rock common
industrial processing techniques are used.

from: Katalog der documenta 8, Kassel 1987,
©Ulrich Rückriem.