Shaping Time
The fruits of a long and thorough learning process are plentiful, particularly in relation to figurative art. With a history of at least thirty thousand years and an infinite multitude of relationships between figure, environment and philosophy, the figurative tradition in sculpture is far from dead. The human figure in art is a complex subject matter that requires the sculptor to consider comprehensive interrelations between the means at his/her disposal: material, form and time. The figurative sculptor needs skill and knowledge of manipulating different materials. When working in the medium of bronze, for example, not only does the process and technique of metal casting need to be understood, but also working with materials such as wax, plaster, clay and moulding materials.
Besides creative energy and conceptual ideas, the figurative artist also needs to have a fundamental understanding of anatomical particulars of the human figure, its function, proportions and parts as well as the complex relationship between them. The natural form as perceived and understood by the sculptor, has to be translated and abstracted into sculptural form. The process of form-giving (
Formgebungsprozeß or
Gestaltungsprozeß) integrates idea, perception and form, but also goes hand in hand with the manipulation of the material. The slightest of deviations of the sculptural object from the natural form will carry an expression and can change the overall meaning.
Work Cycles
Portraits
Inspired by Marino Marini’s portraits during a visit to Tuscany in 1998, Holger started to work on a series of portraits of close friends. Some of the ‘multiple portraits’ were the starting point of the inquiry into simultaneity of time and form and proved to be important for the development of his sculptural language. A portrait study of the German writer Heinrich Böll in bronze is in the collection of the Heinrich Böll Cottage, Achill Island.
The Suleika Cycle
Continuing the initial experimentation with intersecting forms resulted in the Suleika cycle, three double-figure groups referring to Goethe’s West-Östlicher Divan. With the knowledge of the human body gained through ongoing life studies, Holger attempted complex and sculpturally difficult interlocking of human forms in this work cycle.
The Suibhne/Bran Cycles
Inspired by the form and proportions of Irish curachs as well as the life-style and mythology surrounding these vessels, Holger started to introduce the image into his work to further investigate interlocking forms. Groups of three boats and a series of small individual boats cast using bronze-age technology, are part of this series.
Free Compositions
Initiated by studies of buildings in Florence, two architectural composition studies explore concepts of intersecting forms in a more abstract context than the figure. Architectural Composition I originated in a whole cube, subsequently cut and reassembled.
Other Work
Alongside groups and work-cycles stand a number of single pieces that reflect personal interests at the time. Ecce Homo is a critical comment on consumer culture in Britain, investigating forms with dual reading (carrier bags and skulls), while Caryatid is a continuation on the burden-theme of the Daidalos series, however, inspired by sketches of travellers at a train station. Oceanos Hands, strictly a continuation of early hand studies was made to be used as the head of a fountain. Four large scale wood carvings evolved in 2001: an over-lifesize torso in elmwood, a carving from a railway-sleeper, inspired by images of annunciation scenes in Tuscany and a translation of Daidalos II in ash.
