GEREON LEPPER

UNZERTRENNLICH (‘INSEPARABLE’), prototype

2002
Atelier Hattingen

'Unzertrennlich' is a sculptural group composed of three elements of like construction, one of them differing in its larger scale. Each of the sculptures is a balancing-system that responds to wind force. Two wings made of angled stainless steel sheet are fixed in mirror symmetry to a high mast and at the same time integrated kinetically within a steel construction by means of transversals on ball bearings, such that both wings project outward – symmetrically, but staggered with respect to their longitudinal axis. Applying counterweights means that, in calm conditions, the wings balance out at an angle of some 15° downward from the horizontal. Incident air currents disturb this balance. The mutually independent motion of the two wings lends each of these sculptures the air of an enormous bird in gliding flight, instinctively adjusting the movements of its wings to each other.