German artist Erwin Heerich (1922-2004) used to work mostly with cardboard and polystyrene, materials which he believed didn’t have any specific historical connotation and which would not last too long in time. This choice enabled him to start a production of shapes which were free from any value associated to their materiality.
Through drawings and sculptures he relentlessly researched ways in which an imagined space could be formed and acquire physical qualities.
Heerich’s artistic process starts from a parallelepiped, then, through the application of mathematical rules, this basic shape gets modified: some of its parts are subtracted, multiplied or added. The operations take place, at first, in isometric drawings and construction plans, then the resulting shape is further developed and transformed into sculptures and in a few occasions into an architectural work. His systematical investigation of the spatial object aimed at the production of forms freed from any style, timeless, but rich in possibilities while so strictly regulated in the making process.
Images © Erwin Heerich, Via Artax Kunsthandel HG
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