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UNTITLED (ETERNAL BEAUTY) (#1 - #4)
2019
Concrete, steel, varnish
300  x 60 x 30 cm each


With Untitled (Eternal Beauty), Kay Walkowiak has created a series of geometric steel grid structures that take up the proportions of the Modulor. The vertical and horizontal surfaces enclosed by a square embody the idea of "pure form" in its claim to absoluteness. However, Walkowiak adds a figurative element to the materializations of this mathematical abstraction: the metal grids each stand on a cast stone turtle. In Hinduism, the turtle Akupāra (Sanskrit: अकूपार) is regarded as a wise animal that outlasts man and carries the world. In China and Japan there are gravestones on turtles, because these symbolize the transition between the worlds. Corbusier's theory of harmony as a paradigm of timeless modernist aesthetics balances, so to speak, on a pedestal of East Asian thought: two incompatible systems statically seek a compromise. Taoism also strives to use architecture to create harmony and a corresponding energy field. Geometrically designed windows, for example, mark a threshold architecture designed to keep ghosts away. Raster structures such as those influenced by Corbusier's master plan or by Feng Shui are, in the final analysis, primarily culturally shaped carriers of meaning - their respective self-understanding dwindles in local transfer and is superimposed by new connotations.



Text: Vanessa Joan Mueller, Vienna 2019
Photos: Studio Kay Walkowiak




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