As continuous pulsing networks or deftly scattered units, Claudia Schmacke’s liquid environments are unexpected and mesmerizing. Employing the element of water in both flowing and motionless states, she illumines the workings of the physical world as well as the ways we perceive it. Her sculptural installations are minimal in form and sophisticated in implication – expanding our awareness of the passing moment, our concrete surroundings, and the interconnectedness of the two.
Early on in her career Schmacke began to realize that she wanted to work with something organic and mutable, something with an ephemeral nature. Her first foray in that direction involved the use of paraffin in her work, with its simultaneous suggestion of both liquid and solid. This approach was fuelled by her interest in the fluid realities of contemporary physics and philosophies of time and space. Later, during a fellowship in Italy, Schmacke encountered da Vinci’s notes on naturally-occurring phenomena and patterns of movement in water. At the same time, she studied Renaissance gardens and natural landscapes, and became fascinated with fountains, terraced streams and the role of water in activating a space. She started to see water not only as a substance with immense possibilities for sculpture, but also as a microcosm of the physical universe.
Throughout the variety of forms that Schmacke uses, there are recurring elements of duality and paradox. The juxtaposition of flow and containment is the most apparent set of opposites, but her work also explores the sensation of time passing, or else seeming to stop – and the relationship of each to physical movement. Just as stillness connotes a suspended, eternal state, motion generally implies duration and the passage of time.
Early on in her career Schmacke began to realize that she wanted to work with something organic and mutable, something with an ephemeral nature. Her first foray in that direction involved the use of paraffin in her work, with its simultaneous suggestion of both liquid and solid. This approach was fuelled by her interest in the fluid realities of contemporary physics and philosophies of time and space. Later, during a fellowship in Italy, Schmacke encountered da Vinci’s notes on naturally-occurring phenomena and patterns of movement in water. At the same time, she studied Renaissance gardens and natural landscapes, and became fascinated with fountains, terraced streams and the role of water in activating a space. She started to see water not only as a substance with immense possibilities for sculpture, but also as a microcosm of the physical universe.
Throughout the variety of forms that Schmacke uses, there are recurring elements of duality and paradox. The juxtaposition of flow and containment is the most apparent set of opposites, but her work also explores the sensation of time passing, or else seeming to stop – and the relationship of each to physical movement. Just as stillness connotes a suspended, eternal state, motion generally implies duration and the passage of time.
Deborah Everett
Art critic, author of multiple reports on New York and international art scene, author of essays for exhibition catalogues in the Long Island University and in the Architectural League of New York City. Publications in ZingMagazine, Cover Magazine, Sculpture magazine, NY Arts and articlemagazine.com.
Aus Fluid Encounters, published in Claudia Schmacke Waterworks, Gutleut Verlag, Franfurt/Main, 2005
