Raumsäule / Spatial Pillar

Rather than fitting in with the surrounding architecture, the Spatial Pillar in Neuss serves as a counterpoint to the squares and buildings around it. It requires a lot of free space to achieve its monumental stature, which the product of two factors: form and material.

The stainless steel shows no evidence of the work process. Erich Hauser saw his sculptures as “hollow bodies with a stainless steel skin.” The use of hard and cold-looking steel draws the viewer’s attention to the striking shape of the Spatial Pillar.

Resting on a a large concrete base, the sculpture made out of a large tube that is knotted and bent multiple times at the bottom. The tube rises upward from the knot and is bent twice, making it look as if it’s frozen in the process of collapsing. When observed from different angles, the intertwined and complex forms develop as a representation of tension and dynamics.

The artist uses the highly unstable equilibrium created here to explore the possibilities and limitations of statics and the relationship between body and space.

Undoubtedly based on straightforward calculations, the Spatial Pillar finds itself in in the field of tension between (fictitious) physical model and artwork.

Source: Skulpturen in Neuss – Author: Dr. Christian Frommert