OTTO BOLL
b. 1952, GermanyOtto Boll is an artist who operates from an expressly minimalist sensibility. His works are acutely reduced forms of steel that hover in space, almost cutting through it. Suspended by barely visible nylon threads, these sculptures—lines drawn in the air—seem to float, and inhabit the area and space overhead. Using 3 mm strips of steel, he sharpens the tip until he achieves a point so fine that its outer limit disappears. Thus, the artist is capable of shaping visual statements that linger precariously on the edge: the works oscillate between presence and absence, the seen and the unseen, suggesting both materiality and the void. The artist is thereby able to unsettle the viewer’s conception of solidity.
Articulating something which appears to be almost lighter than air, Boll invites us into a state of (possibly uncomfortable) contemplation. One needs to walk around and under the work—in line with minimalist premises—in order to attain a more ‘complete’ experience of the sculptures. The works are in fact sculptural events that are activated by the viewer’s real-time multisensory perception.
Courtesy Axel Vervoordt Gallery
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