Moritz Stumm

SPLINTER

safety-glas, wood, light

ongoing series

WIE SICH DER KLEINE MORITZ DIE WELTGESCHICHTE VORSTELLT

2017

c-print, alu dibond

size variable

ANTI SOL

2011

forex | light | 250 x 250 x 250 cm

Anti Sol is science fiction and mysticism, proportion theory and conceptual art. Like the black monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Anti Sol appears to stem from another world, weightlessly suspended in space. The object‘s flashing lights signify a Morse code in a strange and foreign language, communicating with the observer without providing the key for decryption. The sculptural piece Anti Sol is a formally distinct entity, suggesting a narrative element.

As a sculpture, Anti Sol refers to the Cube installations by Sol LeWitt. Moritz Stumm transfers the physical grid-like properties in Sol LeWitts sculptures into the medium of light. For this purpose the empty spaces in LeWitts constructions are replaced by black solid planes. Four light sources radiate from the interior of the cube through the visible grids. The resulting patterns of light survey the dimensions of the space surrounding the cube and extend the sculpture into its environment. The light emanating from Stumms sculpture pervades its surroundings and creates a visible relation between the dimensions of the room and the size of the observer. The light intertwines the proportions of the surrounding space with the proportions of the sculpture, which are again proportionally reflected in the size of the observer.

NEGATIVE ANTI SOL

2014

300 cm  300 cm  300 cm  | wood  | LED-Stripes | lacquer

Negative Anti Sol destroys perception, overloads the senses. It‘s a space pod that pierces its structure into the interior of the observer‘s eyes, strikes lightning onto the retina und burns itself in as an afterimage. The stroboscopic phantom images freeze fractional moments in time, blur what was clear and eventually make it disappear in a perceptional vortex.

Negative Anti Sol contains a dual transformation, a repeated negation. The installation cites Moritz Stumm‘s own work Anti Sol (2011), which itself refers to the Cube sculptures by Sol LeWitt. The process of inversion – negating the „Anti“ version of LeWitt‘s sculpture – creates a cube that‘s secluded from its exterior surroundings with a walk-in accessible interior. Once inside, you enter an alien reality, in which the laws of time and space are broken. Where light escapes to the outside through the grid-like structure of the sculpture Anti Sol, the same structure permits light to enter the interior of Negative Anti Sol. Where Anti Sol extends its form into its surroundings, Negative Anti Sol projects its pattern into the interior of the observers mind.

The dimensions of space in relation to the human form are a crucial element of this work as well. The somewhat confined dimensions of the interior induce a direct enclosure by the structural grid; it even seems to physically engulf the bodies of visitors inside this alien space capsule. As well as referring to the sculptures of Sol LeWitt and Stumm‘s own work, Negative Anti Sol also cites impressions from popular culture and science fiction. Among other things, it suggests the Holodeck from Star Trek, images from Tron, and various techno music album covers from the early 90s era.

SPLINTER | FIST

Safety glass | lacquer | neon tube | 100 x 100 x 100 cm | 2013

The sculpture Splinter/ Fist refers in its reduction to minimalism, but at the same time awakens associations with rioting and vandalism.