In 1987 I had finished a big order from the government and I had invested the money for buying an old blacksmith’s house. Now this bought my first big studio until now (of course now it has become far to small) I had the dream to make kinetic sculptures since a long time and finally I had a budget for buy equipment for fulfilling that dream.
After the first big exhibition in the “Salon du Cercle Artistique” I received good critics, but one that I didn’t like at all: The art critic wrote something that I copy Tinguely. At that time I had never heard of this guy… and in fact, after checking through books I could find out that the spirit of Jean Tinguely and mine are not so different. So the critic’s remark was more flattering to me, but some people called me Tinguely after that time.
In my mechanical sculptures I enjoy combining my technical skills with my sense of visual communication. I just love gearboxes and mechanical machines and even nowadays most of my friends are engineers.
Making mechanical sculptures is a new challenge and pleasure. Although it’s a long work I enjoy it so much, that it brings me into a working trance, forgetting about time and appointments. Mostly I do this work in the night time as I just cannot be disturbed.
My mechanical sculptures are divided in to different categories:
1.wall or stand alone sculptures which are structural works, showing the beauty of simplicity and of geometry. They are mostly very slow running and can run for long time.
2. sculptures that are made (some of them) are from scrap materials that I collected from recycling centers. Most of these sculptures run more quickly and are meant to run only some times for a limited time.
They all have electrical motors (except some projects working with wind power and others by waterpower) and can be running on any desired voltage with an adapter. I developed a new type of motor that fulfills most of my expectations.
For the slow running sculptures my goal is the very long lasting motor and transmission system. This expectation is already fulfilled. The next expectation is the flat dimension of the motor and also this is done. Now I’m still working on the noise reduction. They are already better than most of the commercial motors, but I would rather like them to be almost silent.
Unfortunately I have no videos left about the sculptures that are sold, but I do however, have some photos.
The meta title for the geometric works is : “La géométrie dans tous ses états” (this has a double meaning in English: 1) geometry in all states… 2)Geometry gets mad.
You will find kinetic sculptures designed and made after 2016. This does not mean I have not worked all the time before, but my work was mostly about getting organized , getting tools and equipment together, improving my techniques and skill, accumulating new experiences. In fact the sculptures you can see are the result of many years of preparing work, numerous fails etc. Some people cannot understand this and they say like: Soooo expensive your work, we can get this done for much cheaper. They do not realize what is happening behind the scenes. The work I invest is manifold the work you see. Creative work has its price.