Bürkle Bettina

In her three-part sculpture group "Floor Pieces", artist Bettina Bürkle, born in Heilbronn in 1961, addresses the classic motif of the vessel. Three rust-red corten steel containers are randomly placed on the edge of a meadow. Like a natural growth principle, they seem to sprout directly from the ground. Their round shape conjures up associations with different fields of meaning: a vessel, a bud, an oversized fruit (poppy capsule) or even a head. In the open, horizontal sculpture, the shell-like construction becomes apparent and the enclosing interior becomes tangible. The vessel shape is an archetypal motif that recurs symbolically in many mythologies; it corresponds to a preserving principle, the original form of life. The hollow or negative space plays just as important a role as the actual form. "We work with the substantial, but the emptiness is what we use" (Lao Tzu).

If you compare the shapes of the sculptures, you get the impression of change and development, the apparent processuality brings the temporal dimension into play. The vascular and bud-like objects are neither clearly bodies nor abstract forms. Rather, they act as a medium for conveying the ideas of growth, strength, change and stillness. 

Quote

«The sculptures are initially built from individual cardboard segments and later cast in iron as a complete mould. Bending and building with the cardboard creates a specific tension in the form, which is reminiscent of growth from within.»