photos: Franz Wamhof
Dancing on Tables
Dancing on Tables
Tisch Tänzer
1989
S 1989–1
Ensemble of four individual sculptures on wooden pedestals and 14 drawings
metal, computer, mechanics, compressor, fiberglass, pants, shoes, lighting
Museum für Neue Kunst, ZKM, Karlsruhe
a) sculpture with forward and backward movement of the swing leg
(brown trousers), 200 x 80 x 50 cm
b ) Sculpture with lateral movement of the swing leg
(black trousers), 200 x 80 x 50 cm
c ) sculpture with diagonal movement of the swing leg
(gray trousers), 200 x 80 x 50 cm
d ) sculpture with dance-like movements
(no trousers), 275 x 70 x 40 cm
Drawings on canvas: each 170 x 115 cm
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Hamburger Kunsthalle 2003,
Jan-Peter Gehrckens (© NDR 2003)
3:19 min
Dancing on Tables has its precursor in Tap Dancer. Three of the half-figures wear men’s pants and shoes, and move to speeches by American politicians (General Eisenhower, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Jesse Jackson). The fourth, unclothed dancer, standing on its base, moves to arias from “The Pearl Fishers” by Bizet and Händel’s “Rinaldo.”
14 large-format drawings, which are bordered on both sides with the kind of material used in making men’s suits, hang behind the sculptures. When the sculptures are set into motion, this triggers a triple, staggered optical effect, from the sculptures, to the shadows they cast, to the drawings on the wall.
(The triggering by the viewer of the individual sculpture is a component of the work, pauses last 3 min., each activation is followed by a brief dance movement.)
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Construction of Dancing on Tables, Venice Biennale 1995
Kamera: Alexander Stengel
4:18 min