Sculpture July/August 2005 41

While visitors may have become accus-tomed to the Frankfurter Kunsthallechanging its look with every exhibition,this time it is absolutely unrecognizable.Climbing the stairs and entering theexhibition space is like being trans-ported to another utterly, blindinglywhite world. The ceiling is hung witha transparent white fabric, the floor iswhite, the walls and lighting are allwhite as far as the eye can see. In this“white cube,” there are aesthetic objectsof extreme beauty—very exacting andminimal.Carsten Nicolai’s inspiration is polar-

ity: bright/dark, reflective/absorptive,visible/invisible, positive ener-gy/negative energy, yes/no,plus/minus. He presents phenomenarooted within these fields of tension,makes them visible and audible, andgives them physical form. In theFrankfurt Schirn Kunsthalle, thisduality is given a structure. Polarity

influences the entire layout of the exhi-bition. Two separate rooms are con-nected by a passageway, the firstroom very bright, the second extremelydark. Like the two works in the exhi-bition, one in each room, the roomsare also titled reflex and anti. The exhi-bition itself is a combination of thetwo—“anti reflex.”The connecting passageway acts as

interspace. The walls are covered withsmall squares, themselves covered withvery closely spaced fine black and whitelines that create a shimmer and flickeron the visual cortex. They can be under-stood as visual rhythms, pulsing fieldsof varying colors. Behind this is thesecond room of the exhibition, coun-terpart to the first.When first entering the bright room—

reflex—a question intuitively comes tomind: Are these objects art, meaning“artificial objects without purpose,”or are they items that Nicolai seizedfrom a research lab, took apart, frag-mented, and arranged anew? The piecetelefunken, for example, is made up of

monitors that quite obviously displaysome sort of impulse. Fine lines of lightdraw themselves across an otherwiseblack screen. Next to them, austerepanels hang on the walls, reminiscentof Minimalist paintings from the ’60sand ’70s—black stripes of varyingwidths cross a transparent white sur-face. Looking more closely, viewersrecognize that the stripes are actuallylengths of magnetic tape. Are they blankor recorded? If so, with what: music,photos, text? Apparently it is some typeof information, but the specifics remainunclear. A soft humming fills the space,and farther back a number of crystal-like objects await discovery.Everything is white, gray, or black.

The staging is flawless, the surroundingaesthetic a perfect arrangement of idealsurfaces. An lulling beauty emanatesfrom Nicolai’s art. Cables, monitors,and speakers, openly displayed, domi-nate large swaths of the gallery. Theseelements clearly demonstrate the artist’sinterest in visual and acoustic phenom-ena and their realization through the

reflex and perfect square, 2005. Mixedmedia, view of the installation “anti reflex.”N

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by Stefanie BickelTranslation from the German byAnthony B. Heric

Carsten Nicolai

in M A T H E M A T I C A L S P A C ECrystalline Beauty

42 Sculpture 24.6

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use of electronic equipment.At the back of the long room stands

a large White Cube that viewers canenter—a white crystal more than 2.5meters tall. The tiny microphonesinstalled on its milky-opaque walls givethe illusion that the cube is connectedto an EEG measuring brain-waveactivity. Actually, the microphones donot measure any wavelengths or fre-quencies; instead they emit them. InsideWhite Cube, viewers are enveloped bywhite noise—it is like walking into afine acoustic skin that surrounds you

and transports you to a world of fre-quencies and pulses, interpretedand enhanced by your eyes and ears.Concepts like space and time fade.This is the reflex installation,

somewhat reminiscent of high-risearchitecture, a recently landed space-ship, or even a jail cell from a sciencefiction movie, feeling simultaneouslyfamiliar and alien. With its smooth,perfect beauty, it calls forth designrenderings. The actual experience ofthe size and physicality of the object,on the other hand, seems strangely

surreal.Moving through the passageway

connecting the two parts of the exhibi-tion is like falling into the heart ofdarkness. As in reflex, in anti the visi-tor is surrounded by acoustic manifes-tations. Hissing, crackling, and click-ing lure unsuspecting visitors into thedarkness. Navigating through the room(which can also mean bumping intoother visitors), the viewer finds futuris-tic-appearing apparatus and steel tubesnot unlike torpedoes or rocket engines.The floor suddenly softens and yields. Ascreen shows a projection of snow flur-ries that form into patterns and changeevery few seconds. A gigantic blackcrystal emerges from the darkness andanswers visitors’ curious touches witha humming and crackling.

anti is the counterpart to reflex.Albrecht Dürer’s famous copperplateengraving Melancolia I (1514) shows anangelic being in the foreground. Lost inthought, the winged figure sits on a slabof stone; her head lies heavily, sup-ported by her left hand, while her rightholds a caliper and touches a closedbook. The figure is surrounded byinstruments of mathematics, geometry,and trigonometry as well as hand tools,including a hammer, plane, file, ruler,and nails. In her immediate vicinity arealso a sleeping dog, an orb, a tiny angelsitting atop a millstone, an hourglassto represent the passing of time, and alarge, apparently solid crystal. Dürer’sengraving has been the source of manyheadaches for artists and art historiansover the ages. It remains unclear whatall the imagery means. Certain elementspoint to alchemy, the sleeping dog maypossibly represent the dream world, andthe corona/comet in the heavens couldbe a metaphysical apparition. What thecrystal represents, of what material it ismade, if it was manufactured by handi-work, alchemy, or magic or if it is a nat-ural phenomenon, all remain unanswer-able questions.Nicolai, though, has brought Dürer’s

mysterious form to life in his black crys-tal anti. Nicolai proportionally enlargedhis version, which unlike its analogue

Top: reflex, perfect square, and telefunken,2005. Mixed media, view of the installation“anti reflex.” Bottom: anti, 2005. Mixedmedia, view of the installation “anti reflex.”

Sculpture July/August 2005 43

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reflex cannot be entered, to a height of2.55 meters. Its magnetic field is dis-rupted by that of the human body, thusit interacts with the gallery’s visitors.When you walk by or touch the work,it answers with humming and crackling.The mechanism, however, remains liter-ally in the dark. Since the crystal isblack and located in an almost com-pletely darkened room, it emerges,monolithic in size, like an apparition—its scale and proportions are difficultto comprehend.Both rooms, reminiscent of research

laboratories, may also conjure long-agophysics courses. But while the works areclearly rooted in representations of sci-entific questions and rational thinking,they are at the same time enigmatic andpoetic. It remains difficult to fathom

what is being measured and displayed,whether the visible and audible appari-tions result from precise instrumenta-tion or pour forth from the visionary-creative will of the artist—perhaps theyare a combination of the two. Listeningto the microscopic tones of Nicolai’sconstantly and slowly rotating record-ings, observing the Minimalist struc-tures of his installations, paintings, andsculptures, the world becomes a place offantastic experiments and brilliant solu-tions.Nicolai attempts to involve you, the

viewer, in his art, integrating you into itand thus allowing you to take part in anopen creative process. The room instal-lation visuelles Feld (visual array) con-tains a small camera mounted oppositea wall projection. A monitor reproducesacoustic and visual signals from thecamera. Visitors cannot enter the roomwithout entering the camera’s field ofoperation; mere presence automaticallychanges the picture and tone, thus mak-ing it impossible to see an interference-free image. When artists so directly inte-grate the viewer into their work, theymay create unanticipated reactions thatthey can no longer control. Inasmuchas Nicolai works with the continuity

Above: Modell zur visualisierung, 2001.Electron diffraction tube, magnetic field, coil,CD player and CD, amplifier, loudspeakers,and light table, dimensions variable. Right:Kerne, 1998. Steel, rubber, glass, and water,dimensions variable.

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of shape and sound and the correspon-dence between vision and hearing, hecombines the cyclical elements of naturewith the cycles and oscillations createdwithin the viewer.In part, the technical-equipment aes-

thetic that Nicolai uses speaks for itselfand creates its own unique world—a world of associations and levels ofmeaning. This world is one of precision,where the impossible is made possible.An array of optical and acoustic signsannounces that we have landed in amysterious technical place.Nicolai’s works transpose our visual

and aural perceptions by making tonesand rhythms visible and visual phenom-ena audible. The question of what isbeing seen and heard is not just a view-er’s first amazed impression; instead itrepresents a repeating and fundamentaltheme in his work: What am I seeing?What am I hearing? Nicolai analyzesthese familiar processes and does sowith scientific accuracy. For example,sound waves are projected onto a screenso that the eye can visually comprehendthem. “I like to work under very preciseconditions and in that sense scientificresearch and artistic processes are moreor less the same.” His interest in sci-ence, however, transcends the precisionof his work. Dürer’s Melancolia I alsoshows a square on the wall above thefigure, subdivided into a four-by-fourgrid of smaller squares, each with itsown number. The sums of the horizon-tals, verticals, and diagonals of the largesquare are all equal. These images ofmathematical oddities open the doorsof congress between science and art:a meditation on geometric propor-tions becomes a way to experience thestructure of the world.Scientific research and artistic specu-

lation enjoyed a dialogue during Dürer’stime. In Nicolai’s work, they do soagain. The 16th and 17th centuries sawa range of scientific discoveries andobservations that changed our view ofthe world. Just before the modern age,the stable framework of unquestioningbelief in Christian dogma lost ground to

Top: Void, 2002. Sound, chrome-plated glass,aluminum, silicon, and rubber, dimensionsvariable. Bottom: Spray, 2004. Video projec-tor, DVD player and DVD, and sound system,dimensions variable.

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an unbridled level of curiosity about thesurrounding world and its workings.The laws of optics, motion, gravity, theplanets’ orbits, and the measurement oftime were discovered; groundbreakingresearch and an unparalleled thirst forknowledge produced completely novelparadigms. The Renaissance remainsfascinating to this day as an interfacebetween belief and knowledge, betweenthe Middle Ages and the Modern Era,between the dark insanity of the Inqui-sition and the bright clarity of reason.Nicolai is interested in the concept ofthe Renaissance and is searching forinsight himself: “I am not religious. Ibelieve in mathematical models, geomet-ric systems, and rigorous logic. I believethere is a master plan underlying all ofnature. However, it does not take theform of one single plan but instead isa complex pattern of differing, inter-woven plans.”Some of his works are based directly

on Renaissance research. Kepler’s 1611text On the six-cornered snowflake wasthe first scientific treatise published onsnowflake crystal morphology. Keplerrecognized that snowflakes always

exhibit six-fold symmetry and that thiscomplex crystalline structure is one ofthe most fascinating and beautifuloccurrences nature has to offer. He triedto understand and explain this mor-phology through logical reasoning.Nicolai is also fascinated by these finewhite stars, with their infinite variety ofnew shapes and forms. The installationsnow noise gives viewers the opportuni-ty to initiate the creation of ice crystalsin a laboratory-like setting. The freezerscan be used to cool a specially preparedglass cylinder to a temperature of minus25 degrees Celsius. Just a few minutesafter setting the container into thefreezer, simple ice crystals begin to form.Over time, more complex structurescrystallize, forming shapes that neverrepeat themselves. A scientific tableholds drawings that depict the largenumber of various types of ice crystals;with them, the viewer can identify indi-vidual crystalline structures. Throughthe sublime use of light and sound,snow noise focuses our full attentiononto microstructures.The scientist and the artist are con-

nected by their fascination with the

visual, by their challenging of estab-lished paradigms, and by their curiosityand their courage to think differently.Nicolai says, “Those who only followlogical rules are acting like machines.The person who first bursts the moldand does something unexpected is theone who breaks new ground. Several ofthe more famous scientific inventionsare products of coincidence; often it’sthe unexpected moments that triggernew discoveries.” Kepler’s treatises andspeculations inspired Nicolai to com-bine scientific laboratory methodologywith his intuitive search for new expres-sive languages, this time reproducing thecrystalline structures of snowflakes andthe crystal in Dürer’s engraving.Precision and skepticism echo in

Nicolai’s works. Being willing to admitmistakes is a basic necessity for creativi-ty and change. The objects created bythis process represent an integration ofthe imaginary and the real. They tracemysterious phenomena and try to leadour perception in new directions. Tothis end, Nicolai works with reductionand abstraction. His paintings are madeof transparent materials. Acoustic wave-lengths, frequencies, rhythms, and cyclesprovide a starting point for many of hisworks; mathematical principles, shapeslike spirals, and algorithms make up thevisual foundation; light and its absenceare its basic elements.The idea of consciousness as a net-

work, subject to no hierarchy, pervadesNicolai’s thinking. It establishes thebasis for his observations and the real-ization of his work, emerging from theamorphous threshold where conscious-ness and materiality intertwine. Theviewer perceives changes and reacts tothem, moves into a magnetic field andinfluences it, enters a room and changesit, just by being present. We are bothNicolai’s audience and subject.Many of these considerations, how-

ever, are in danger of being eclipsed bythe Minimalist beauty of the exhibi-tion. The technical coolness and perfectelectronic design aesthetic seem almosttoo smooth and too perfect to capturethe mysterious, almost miraculous con-junction of science and art.

98% Wasser, 2002. Aquarium, water, andjellyfish, dimensions variable.