Energetic Charge
“With an acute sense for the inherent potential contained within ordinary objects and natural materials as well as for the placement of objects within a space, both artists manage to give their arrangements an energetic charge.”
The above quote is from the description of an exhibit currently at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. I hope to see the exhibit. I quite like the art in the picture.
What caught my eye in the text is “inherent potential” and “both artists manage”. I do not dispute that ordinary objects have inherent potential. Some more than others. (a fully charged capacitor, for example. Or a tub of water atop a large hill. ha!)
Funnin’ aside, I understand that phrase and the drama of space – placement of objects. What I don’t understand is pairing that phrase with “both artists manage to give their arrangements an energetic charge”.
If the objects have inherent potential, then it should be impossible to not give their arrangements an energetic charge. Just throw them out there, and boom! you’re done. The problem lies with the word “managed”. To me it signals some kind of skill, or ability that imbued the arrangements with energetic charge. Maybe it’s a translation issue. Maybe the artists unleashed the potential energy creating a static, yet kinetic, arrangement.
It would be more impressive if the artists had used objects and space that have no potential and managed to create energetic charge.
But…what spaces have no potential?
What objects have no potential?
Or maybe used objects and spaces of great potential and created arrangements of absolutely no charge.
I’d go see that!