Texts




Renate Petzinger

A paper sculpture floats in the air above the lobby in the five-storey building of the Nassauische Sparkasse in Wiesbaden ... ... The dimensions of the oblong form are truly striking: 250 cm high, 130 cm wide and 1800 cm long. The elongated block, which presents a solid external form, derives its volume from a series of 361 white sheets of paper hung vertically at intervals of five centimetres on a pair of steel tubes. The supporting structure is suspended on cables from the roof of the spacious hall. Like a spaceship, the huge, yet seemingly weightless object floats above the visitors´ centre. The first thing those who enter the hall through the north entrance see is the smooth front end panel, but they quickly scan the long side of the sculpture, which offers a view between the individual paper elements. Many of the sheets exhibit tears or appear incomplete. The shadows of the torn edges fall on the neighbouring sheets, enlivening the interior of the oblong structure. Large holes have also been torn in the paper in several places. Their staggered outlines form cavities that extend into the depth of the sculpture, offering surprising views and insights. The viewer´s eye embarks upon a journey of exploration that leads over sharp ridges into the inner regions of deep caves, evoking associations with centuries-old glacial or polar ice formations. Aspects of eternity and transience come easily to mind. Terforation is the title of this extraordinary sculpture. It combines terra, the Latin word for "earth", with the concept of perforation. In this new work, Angela Glajcar, who has attracted considerable attention in Wiesbaden and the Rhine-Main region with black-and-white spatial compositions made of paper in recent years, works once again with the interplay of lightness and weight, stillness and motion, light and shadow. The unreal beauty of her spaceship filled with hollows and caves corresponds to this physically palpable spatial presence. The idea that led to this floating sculpture has several different roots. One is the Contrarius series of spatial installations composed of rolled white and black strips of paper for which, after several exhibitions, the artist began looking for new uses. Glajcar cut the paper sheets to identical dimensions, smoothed them out and screwed them together between black book covers. The element of animation was preserved in the torn edges, which account for the appeal of these black-and-white book objects that take the shape of horizontal rectangles. The focus on these torn edges, the closer investigation of a frequently recurring, serial motif, led to a new observation. The staggered arrangement of torn edges produced cave-like invaginations, empty volumes with a sculptural quality of their own, which Glajcar first explored in smaller book objects using only white paper. Somewhat later, she was invited to submit a proposal for the artwork in the lobby of the Nassauische Sparkasse, which is "redecorated" every six months. After visiting the site, Glajcar realized immediately that this would not be a suitable setting for another Contrarius installation - despite the fact that the invitation to submit her proposal was prompted by the floating elements in this series. She decided to do something entirely new, a sculpture composed of torn paper, air and light, a work like nothing else ever done before. Even steel, the material with which she had worked early in her career, would play a part, although in the subordinate role of a supporting structure. Yet it is obvious that even the steel supporting structure of Terforation has artistic qualities that can only come from years of experience with the material. With this work of art, which will be on exhibit in the historical building on Rheinstraße in Wiesbaden until October 2006, Glajcar allows us to experience once again that paper need not be restricted to its role as a material used for writing and printing. As an artistic medium, paper obviously holds much greater potential in store for us.

Renate Petzinger

Black and white paper strips sway in rhythmic motion. Loosely rolled, they appear as three-dimensional forms that approach and move away from each other, like tango dancers ... ... opening lines of view and casting shadows. They interact with one another and create tensions; they exhibit jagged wounds, and seem strangely vulnerable and robust at the same time. They convey a sense of corporeality and a feeling of lightness and weight, and they speak of balance and equilibrium. The contrast between black and white is intensified or attenuated, respectively, by the dialogue between the two colours and the light. Diverse intermediate shades emerge as soft greys between the white and black volumes. The white strips consist of untreated paper. The black ones are painted with a mottled coat of ink, which produces an animated surface. Borders and edges are torn. Depending upon the direction of the tear, the torn edge is concealed on the reverse or remains visible as an irregular, roughly two-centimetre-wide white border on the surface at the edge of the black strips. The light white of the torn edges underscores the generous forms and proportions of the individual elements and their relationships to each other. The coat of ink on the black strips alters the behaviour of the material in space, smoothing out the black paper, which thus does not roll inward as readily as the white, untreated strips. The latter retain their spatial tension, reminding themselves, so to speak, of their original existence as parts of a tightly wound roll. Chance also plays a part in this mode of production. Although the artist prepared preliminary trial versions and models, the actual realization of these paper installations is a process that cannot be controlled. After being formed through rolling and tearing, each strip is nailed and screwed to the wall or the ceiling of the exhibition room. Thus the installation emerges in a step-by-step process and never retains its original configuration from one presentation to the next. These paper installations by Angela Glajcar offer a number of sur-prises: their beauty, which is manifested in the harmony of oppositions, the lightness of their equilibrium, the clarity of their forms and the precision and honesty that are evident in the artist´s approach to the material. Yet equally surprising is the compact physical presence of these paper sculptures, an aspect that has roots in the history of the artist´s oeuvre. Paper was not the point of departure for Glajcar´s journey into art. A master student under professor and sculptor Tim Scott in Nürnberg, she had previously worked with the more traditional materials of wood and steel for quite some time. Early sculptures in wood and steel reveal an aspect of continuity that is common to work with these seemingly so different materials: in the movement of objects in space. Yet while this motion is tamed and controlled by the weight of the steel or wood material, it is free to unfold in fascinating lightness and myriad dance-like variations in paper sculptures. Glajcar´s discovery of paper can be traced to 1998, the year in which she was awarded the Studio Prize by the Erich Hauser Kunststiftung in Rottweil. During a stay of several weeks in Rottweil, she realized a large steel sculpture whose dancerly lightness clearly demonstrated her keen sensitivity to space and movement. But there is more to the story. She also made trial versions of this sculpture in black ink on paper, adding pieces of white paper affixed collage-style. Was there perhaps more that could be done with these models? Could paper conceivably develop its own artistic potential? Glajcar was awarded an Asterstein Grant by the Ministry of Culture of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1999, enabling her to spend a year in a studio house in Koblenz, and it was during this period that she was ultimately captivated by the sculptural quality of her paper models. She began to give space, in all senses of the word, to this new material. Studio phtographs of a series of wood sculptures realized in 2002 show large, torn strips of white and black-coated paper affixed to the wall and lying on the floor of the studio. What might be interpreted on the basis of these photographs a material aid used in the development of a new sculptural language for the material wood had long since begun to occupy a sculptural reality of its own. Glajcar has described the process in her own words in an interview: "The paper sculptures came to me while I was working with wood." Paper began its progress toward aesthetic autonomy in the form of predominantly flat, relief-style collages. Somewhat later, Glajcar realized a series of large-scale, expansive wall objects, whose black-and-white contrasts gave rise to the title Contrarius. In the spring of 2004, an invitation from the Stiftung Vordemberge-Gildewart offered her an opportunity to experiment with the spatial expansion of these wall objects at the Museum Wiesbaden. The jury members were not alone in their praise of the outcome. In 2004 and 2005, Glajcar developed room-sized installations from the wall objects at shows presented by the art societies of Ludwigshafen, Friedberg and Aschaffenburg and at the Walkmühle in Wiesbaden. Her choreographed presentations in black and white have now been enriched by a lighting concept that complements the dialogue between the two extremes with intermediate shades of soft grey and also doubles the suspended paper objects by giving them a shadow. Glajcar´s ability to fill rooms with vibrance through the medium of paper, imbuing them with rhythm and energy, evokes both astonishment and enthusiasm in viewers, who are now able to move about in these rooms and view the individual elements from all sides. The viewer is surrounded by elements that seem as if they had been conjured from thin air. Metaphorically speaking, their charm and clarity, their lightness and elegance - in short, their beauty embodies a kind of promise for the future. Beauty, as the American Minimalist Donald Judd also firmly believed, is something to which each of us has a right - comparable to our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happines.

Cornelia Wichtendahl

Shadows that expand into surrounding space dance across the wall, seemingly alive. At any moment, one is tempted to think, they could separate from the wall and float away ... ... They appear as transient as the shadows of light, yet they are fixed in their form, their motion frozen as if in a snapshot. Small, torn, black pieces of paper are fixed with wire in waves, curves and loops. In her Papierschatten, Angela Glajcar gives shadows a spatial dimension, capturing them in sculptural form. They have emerged from the interplay of light and shadow. In dialogue with the light, they generate other shadows that spread over the wall. Diverse shades of grey are visible between the black surfaces, distorting and reproducing forms and thereby adding additional components to the works. Papierschatten is a series of one-, two- and three-part wall objects made of wire and paper. Coated on both sides with black oil paint, they exhibit a coherent, semi-lustrous surface structured by brushstrokes. The torn edges are also black, although the exposed paper structure is visible in these areas. They are fastened to loops and curved pieces of black wire that keep them under tension, thus fixing them in their form. In contrast to the Contrarius installations, which Angela Glajcar configures in different variations in order to achieve harmony with specific spatial settings, the Papierschatten are entirely autonomous, and their shape remains constant. And the colour scheme is further reduced as well. In pure black, the Papierschatten appear highly concentrated. Wire and paper - lines and flat surfaces are set in contrast in the Papierschatten. They generate tension in both a technical and a formal sense. Alongside the paper strips, which can be compared to broad brushstrokes, the wire has the look of finely drawn lines. Their sweeping curves call to mind the art of calligraphy. The irregularity and vitality of their torn edges is opposed by the clarity of the lines. Contrasts attract Glajcar. Although she builds tension, she also succeeds in establishing complete harmony in her works.

Cornelia Wichtendahl

Radiant white, the sculpture entitled Lichtschatten appears to be floating, dancing above the earth, yet it is fixed in its relationship to it. Like a cloud, it billows ... ... and appears transient but is actually made of heavy material. The plastic sheets bend and twist with paper-like lightness between the stainless steel tubes, rolling inward and outward in sweeping curves, swelling toward and away from one another, gliding out into the surrounding space. They form a complex structure that offers numerous views and insights. The edges appear torn, like those of the paper, thus heightening the sense of transience and randomness. The plastic material is cool-white and translucent. It captures the light, reflects it, allows the surroundings to show through, enters into dialogue with nature. Silhouettes are visible on the surface, altering the coloration, adding countless shades of grey. The work exhibits formal affinities with the Papierschatten. Several rolled plastic sheets are mounted on a supporting structure consisting of stainless steel tubes. The supporting and stabilizing element of the tubes remains in place as a line and contrasts with the plastic surfaces. As in her Papierschatten, Angela Glajcar works once again in the Lichtschatten with the interplay of line and flat surface. Circular forms and straight lines - the geometric form and the clear contour of the stainless steel tubes contrasts with the free forms and the open, irregular torn edges of the plastic elements. The solid, opaque appearance of the metal clashes with the translucent plastic with its light, transient look. Yet common to both are the cool aura of the material and their reflective properties. In Lichtschatten, Angela Glajcar achieves both a technical and formal balance of forces, establishing equilibrium among the various fields of tension. In her art, Angela Glajcar explores such oppositions as lightness and weight, transience and material presence as well as the themes of motion, dance and the endless diversity of the views presented by sculptures. After working for some years with wood and steel, she turned her attention to the artistic potential inherent in the medium of paper. In her Contrarius installations and the Papierschatten, she has found solutions that enable her to capture the lightness of paper in sculptural forms. Yet paper is subject to limitations posed by the sensitivity of the material. It reacts to moisture and thus can only be used indoors. In order to develop the artistic approach that began in her paper works, Angela Glajcar needed a material that exhibits the lightness and transience of paper but is weather-resistant and thus suitable for outdoor use. Plastic appeared to offer a solution. The large-scale plastic sculpture entitled Schattenlicht was developed in the course of Angela Glajcar´s year-long research project in co-operation with BASF. This co-operation emerged from the "Culture and Innovation" conference organized by the State of Rhineland-Palatinate in 2004, to which young managers from the fields of business, science and culture were invited to engage in discussion and exchange ideas. This dialogue has continued since at subsequent discussion forums. In March of 2005, she approached BASF with her idea for the following project during an art-in-architecture competition: The paper installations were to be transposed into a material that has the lightness of the paper sculptures and is freely formable, yet is also stable and resistant to light, weather, ageing and breakage. Ideally, it should also have a material appeal of its own and be translucent, enabling the artist to work with sunlight and artificial light. The BASF project team found a material that meets these requirements in the plastic known as Luran (styrol acryl nitril co-polymer). In September 2005, the first Luran sheets with a thickness of 8 millimetres were produced in 400 x 105 centimetre sheets, which were then subjected to bend testing. Several months of material and assembly testing eventually produced the final processing form. A spiral-shaped loop was built as a supporting structure, to which flexible plastic sheets were mounted as a foundation for the form. The transparent Luran panels were then heated and applied to these form foundations. They were sanded, waxed, mounted onto the steel supports and secured with silicone joints. The first prototype of the plastic sculpture Schattenlicht was presented in the park at Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin in May 2006. With this work, Angela Glajcar not only succeeded in transposing her paper sculptures into plastic but has also opened up new possibilities for her art through the use of plastic material.

 

Intervista ad Angela Glajcar / interview