Optimus II

Günter Haese fashions filigree structures from wire. Using brass and phosphor bronze as materials, he designs a unique physical entity, cut and bent as a mesh or a spiral, soldered and conjoined to create 3-dimensional sculptures.

In the past, he made everything himself and his works have maintained moderate proportions (approx. 50-200 cm). Haese also manufactures the wooden transport crates used to house his objects.

Haese delivers everything complete, the finished work, its storage crate and also the title of the work. The formulation of the title is usually inspired by a poetic association which is sometimes altered.

Since 1963 he has been successfully achieved international recognition for his work, sustaining this position to the present day.

Thanks to a commission received for the Sculpture Collection Viersen Haese is adopting a different approach for the first time. Following lengthy consideration and several visits to the location together with intensive discussions, the possibility of creating a monumental piece of sculpture in the public domain within the context of an ensemble of entirely different kinds of contemporary works has presented him with an artistic challenge. It is a challenge which he is meeting with his customary caution. This is, of course, not simply a matter of enlarging the dimensions of an existing Haese work, but above all about bringing the artistic qualities of his previous work into a new setting: the delicate, filigree wire design, the spatial quality of the open work, the vibrant mobility of its individual elements and their ability to respond to movements of the air and reflections of light in the interplay between fixed and moving components of the structure, and the playful description of the air-filled space as an animated sphere.

A kineticism bereft of simple mechanics, which is transformed into an arbitrary form of movement that can almost be described as organic. The constructed framework as an organ - hence the continuous comparison with antennae and space probes, which is evoked by Haese's works. His works point to the expanse of space, and assert the possibility of crossing it. At the same time, they are cellular structures, in which it becomes possible to experience the sequence, regularity and separateness of an internal structure as through a transparent skin, in the form of possible mobility. The cellular format and tentacles, feelers and antennae, as well as the modular bodies of serial construction and regular in appearance, in which movement appears as one of its possible modes of existence, like a sporadic reflex or like a wafting breath - as an infinitely delicate sensation.

It is not easy for this subtle aesthetic to correspond to modified structural conditions and different weight relationships. A whole range of entirely new decisions had to be taken. The assembly of this sculpture in the public domain is even more complicated than that of its model.

The quality of the reality of the artwork has changed in the process. Are all of Haese's works now potential models for possible creations in a different dimension? The artist agrees in theory, but so far that does not bear any implications in individual cases. Optimus II is a first in the new environment, in a changed world.