RMJM Art Commissioning

Artist Talk: 26 January 09

04/02/09

Blue Cube by Oliver Hein

Artist Talk: 26 January 09

04/02/09

Artist Oliver Hein is based at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge and will be visiting RMJM Cambridge to discuss his practice. The main field of interest in his work is the transformation of spaces or objects through movement or time, questions of their presence and the perception of reality. The objects and spaces he creates change their appearance in many ways such as lighting, colour, motion, position or shape and question the habits of the eye:

A tomato is not a tomato, a sculpture is not a sculpture unless the spectator actually makes it by naming it and giving it the necessary qualitities to complete the task of creation. The work he makes is only one part of the whole thing by providing a context and giving hints that can be followed to create a piece in the spectators mind. The result is not permanent, it all depends ont he state of mind and the images saved in it. This is an aspect that has led him to use common modern materials such as Polythene sheet, solid plastic or glass, materials that have entirely penetrated todays life.

His sculptures and installations in the public realm represent this relationship in their own way: spaces with changing light, water swaying up and down behind glass according to the sun or wind driven movements of mirrors remind us of the abundance od appearances, of energy, nature or a considerate approach to the environment.

Embedded into a social context his work asks questions about the place it occupies, its history and social neighbourhood. This means that public art has the same task: to set a new kind of relationship between people and their urban and social environment. It can pinpoint essential aspects of life in a society by picking up on collective images, behavours, social structures, habits and thus can ask the right questions and catch people's attention and understanding. Images loose their value very quickly, as anything does in a society that is constantly looking for the extreme.