Bettina Pousttchi at Blickachsen 13 in the historic Bad Homburg Kurpark and Schlosspark
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Bettina Pousttchi is taking part in this year's Blickachsen sculpture project in the Kurpark and Schlosspark Bad Homburg.
Every two years from May to October, "Blickachsen" shows contemporary large-scale sculptures and installations by international artists in the historic parks in the centre of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe as well as in Frankfurt/Main and other locations in the Rhine-Main region. The title of this unique exhibition series is derived from the "axes of vision" laid out by Peter Joseph Lenné in the garden architecture of Bad Homburg's spa gardens in the mid-19th century.
The bright red of Bettina Pousttchi’s Vertical Highways can be clearly seen from afar. Here, the artist playfully works with ordinary crash barriers. Even if the deformations might lead one to think these are damaged pieces, in fact Pousttchi uses only new material. She bends, squashes and twists the guard rails, joins them together anew, and stands them up vertically. Through the monochrome painting, she conflates the separate elements, leaning against each other, into a single visual whole, which seems to embody a living being: the sculptures seem like characters, dynamic, from some perspectives even unstable, and convey an impression of change and mobility. The artist often works with objects that serve to control movement in the public space. As she herself says: “We often don’t notice their regulatory function, and how they limit us.” By depriving these objects of their function, she exposes their aesthetic properties, giving them a newly perceivable form.
Photo: Christian Rogge
Blickachsen 13
Ferdinandstraße 19
61348 Bad Homburg v.d.Höhe
Germany