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Unterfläche

Motorized kinetic sculpture, 2019

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Badger Hair, Silicone, various mechanical and electronic components

​80 x 80 x 17 cm

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Unterfläche — a word that does not exist in German — combines unter (under) and Oberfläche (surface), suggesting what might be called a subsurface: the layer beneath the visible.

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The work consists of a circular silicone disc, eighty centimetres in diameter, from which fine badger hairs emerge. They are horizontally aligned, their tips naturally dark, the shafts lighter below. The surface rises and falls in a slow, breathing motion. As it inhales, the dark tips close into a uniform black field; as it exhales, a pale, shimmering layer beneath becomes visible – the Unterfläche, the subsurface.

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The change is slow, almost meditative. Only those who pause notice that something is shifting. Otherwise, the gaze remains fixed on an apparently homogeneous surface, frozen in the moment. Unterfläche thus becomes a quiet invitation to attentiveness – a work that makes the interval between perception and recognition perceptible.

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Its motion feels elemental, like the breathing of a small universe. The view across the Unterfläche is as vital as the view beneath it.