Gegenstrich III
Motorized reactive kinetic sculpture, 2023
Aluminium, stainless steel, various mechanical and electronical components, faux fur
235 x 50 x 50 cm
Gegenstrich III continues the principle of the preceding Gegenstrich works and carries it from the wall into space. An over two-metre-tall tower, whose four sides are covered in synthetic fur, each side alternating the direction of the nap. A narrow bar moves up and down along the structure, brushing the material – on one side with the nap, on the adjacent side against it. Along every edge, light and darkness meet; the surface shifts between smoothness and roughness.
The movement follows no fixed programme but responds to actual physical fluctuations in its surroundings – to electromagnetic fields, cosmic background radiation, and the presence of people and devices. Each moment is unrepeatable, a subtle displacement between order and chance.
The programme controlling the work is itself part of the visible composition. Its underlying code is displayed on a monitor through a specially designed visual interface. Here, incoming sensor data can be observed in real time, along with an indication of which direction the bar will move next – integrating the notion of the future into the present process and making the system’s inner logic perceptible.
The monument-like form of the work recalls a monolith – a shape culturally associated with endurance, strength, and wisdom. At the same time, it evokes the architecture of modern skyscrapers, symbols of a society in constant acceleration. Yet the movement undermines this vertical solidity. Whoever walks around the sculpture can never see more than two sides at once – always one brushed with the nap and one against it; what is visible remains fragmentary and in flux.
A continuous play of opposites unfolds, aiming not at resolution but at balance. As in Gegenstrich II, the changes within the fur’s structure inscribe themselves into one another: traces of the past overlap with those of the present, forming an image that is always in motion and yet carries its own memory.
In its motion, the tower remains at once calm and restless, closed and open, bright and dark – a body in constant reversal, lingering in the space in-between.