CARSTEN HÖLLER
VEHICLE (AMPHIBIAN)
1999
aluminum, plastic, glass fiber, rope, 10 shirts
Vehicle (Amphibian) is a sculpture, an imaginary vehicle that works with fantasy, awakening our ability to create stories and visions. Although static, we can imagine setting it in motion, to observe it with our thoughts as it slowly proceeds over land and sea. The vehicle is amphibious. It looks like a windmill’s wheel, but it is also a sail, ready to plough through the waves, pushed by the wind that gets caught in the hanging shirts. At its centre is the pilot’s seat. The artist offers us a position: we can imagine ourselves in charge of this imaginary machine, trying to blend the flow of our thoughts with the physical sensation of the air, wind, and water moving towards us.
In his works, Carsten Höller is interested in investigating the nature of human experience. He has been an artist since 1993, having originally studied scientific subjects. In his art he introduced a line of experimental research that adopts uncertainty, doubt and displacement as physical and mental states - which are ample, fruitful and productive. With a playful, experimental and captivating approach, Carsten Höller investigates the sphere of perception, at a crossroad between reality and fiction, certainty and illusion. «Many believe – he explained – that my artworks must be experimented in first person, while I think that one can live the experience by observing my work from the outside, or simply contemplating it».