Untitled

A core principal of pop art is the reinterpretation of everyday objects as artworks, whether it be through enlargement (Claes Oldenburg) or through serial arrangement (Andy Warhol). Richard Artschwager also used these methods when designing his bike rack monuments for Münster.
The cast concrete bike rack, surrounded by bicycles but mostly empty itself, is typical to Münster and was originally designed as an object of utility. Here, the artist has made it taller and incorporated it in a series, thus reinterpreting it as a sculpture.
In fact, the artwork mimics the usual method of incorporating the bike racks in a series and the extra tall element takes on a new function as a planter for two types of trees. Even as an autonomous sculpture, the bicycle stands suddenly take on an unexpected, almost minimalist aesthetic.

Further reading:
Skulptur-Projekte 1987 in Münster, ed. by Klaus Bußmann and Kasper König, Cologne 1987, pp. 35–36.