Wilhelm Mundt, Trashstone 634 and 636, 2016, production waste in fibre glass

WILHELM MUNDT

BOYS AND GIRLS AND BLACK HOLES

In 1989, German artist Wilhelm Mundt completed his sculpture Stein 001. The work marks the start of a chronological series of abstract, lump-shaped sculptures that soon came to be titled trashstones. These trashstones has characterised Mundt’s artistry ever since and he has already completed more than 600 of them. The title Boys and Girls and Black Holes is an allusion to the expectations and pre-conceptions that may arise when one encounters a colour, a structure or a shape. While the black bronze surface absorbs almost every light, the aluminum ones are reflecting their surroundings. There will also be a selected range of photographic works presented, The Black Holes. They show various leftover shadows of lumps, each one showing the contour of a Trashstone. 

- Regardless of the muriad of possible associations, the aim is to create something that does not pretend to be anything other than it is, Mundt clarifies.

Completing a trashstone is a complicated and almost industrial project. The core is built-up by excess material from Mundt’s own studio together with other odds and ends.The lumps are then joined together by compressing the content with tape, baked into layers and finally built up with fibre-reinforced plastics. After an extensive period of drying, the trashstone-to-be is polished in turns which produces the rounded and almost elastic shape. After further surface treatment with polyester wax and hardening lacquer, a new trashstone has finally been created. The leftovers from every creation make up the start-up material for the next stone to be made.

Each sculpture also has a secret element – within the core of the artwork lies a certain content only known to the artist. However, some of the sculptures have transparent sections where you can catch glimpses of what is hidden beneath the shiny surface.

Mundt’s creations leave considerable room for variation and randomness. His trashstones come in all shapes and sizes, but are consistently linked by the chronology of their coming into being.

Wilhelm Mundt was born in 1959 in Grevenbroich, Germany. After completing his studies at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, he began a long international exhibition career. As a teacher in Art, he also became a Professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. In 2007, Mundt received the Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture from the London Royal Academy of Arts. This is Wilhelm Mundt’s second solo exhibition in Sweden. The first exhibition took place in Stockholm at Galleri Andersson/Sandström in 2011.