Eine enorme Anstrengung / A Tremendous Effort

Ansgar Nierhoff’s multi-part sculptural ensemble continuously communicates with its surroundings. The two “elongations” were specifically created for the site at the new building of the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum. They reach beyond their immediate surroundings, making reference to the smoke stacks at the public works building in the background. The sculpture is made up of two identical steel blocks that were elongated and forged into two steel columns. Although they contain the same mass, the columns differ in height and design. The only indication that they began at the same starting point is the base, which is the same size and shape on both structures. One of the columns tapers upward in steps, ending in a thin, towering steel tip. The other is a continuous steel form with a capital at the top that mirrors the base. Both stand as autonomous variations of a form, while being in close contact with each other, the architecture, and their surroundings.

Further reading:
StadtKunstFührer: Skulpturen im Duisburger Stadtraum, ed. by the Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg 2012, pp. 48/49.