Jeppe Hein

JEPPE HEIN

THE VIEWER AT STAKE

Jeppe Hein creates simple, geometrically designed sculptures. They emphasise our physical experience of the art and art’s potential for communicating and rousing instinctive reactions from us as viewers.

Moving Neon Cube, 2000

Description
The sculptures Moving Neon Cube and Fusion Movement #11 are placed directly on the floor, both forming a horizontal, geometrical structure of shapes repeated at shifting angles. Fusion of Movement #11 comprises fifteen steel cubes, joined together to form a three metre long twisting form. In grey and shiny steel, the fifteen cubes or ‘modules’ interconnect, making a composite form.

A similar structure is found in the work Moving Neon Cube, comprising twelve connected cubes made out of neon tubes. The cubes light up for less than a second, creating an illusionistic visual impression of a cube of white light wandering in a continuous circular motion. Thus common to Hein’s two sculptures is their illusion of a dynamic, rotating movement across the floor despite their static nature.

About the works
Moving Neon Cube and Fusion of Movement #11 recall the simple idiom of Minimalism. The works contain a reference to American artist Donald Judd who works with the simple, geometric shapes of the cube and who is famous for eradicating any trace of the artist’s presence from his works.
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Hein’s art in general
Often Hein makes interactive works of art that focus on the relationship between work and viewer. Frequently his minimalist sculptures react to the viewer’s presence. In several of Hein’s works the interactive relation between work and viewer takes a disquieting turn. The installation Bear the Consequences, on display in Stockholm in 2003, belched flames towards the viewer while Berlin gallery Johann König in 2002 exhibited the work 360 Degrees Presence, a sensor controlled metal ball which started rolling around and destroying the exhibition space as soon as a visitor entered the room. Hein’s artistic production also includes works with a humorous bent which function as playful explorations of our individual and socially conditioned patterns of reaction.
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Literature
"Jeppe Hein", Oppenheim, Cologne, Germany, 2008
"Reality Check", Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2008
"Until Now", Koenig Books, 2006
"Jeppe Hein: usynlig labyrint", Statens Museum for Kunst, 2006
"Jeppe Hein. Take a Walk in the Forest at Sunlight", Kunstverein Heilbronn, 2003