Unheard-Of Hammer Sounds, Breaking Silence: “Hammer Harp”

Hello again.
Enjoy my “Hammer Harp”. You just listen to sounds of my Malleus Hammers i showed at my Solo Exhibition in Caochangdi, Beijing China.
Introducing words by Curator Cheryl Guo
Resonating with the most common objects is one of Arnd’s major creation approaches in the past over two decades. Born in a German town in 1969, Arnd once learned cabinetmaking and interior design in Munich. Since the 1990s, he started to use found objects in his artworks like Italian artists in the Arte Povera movement and has formed his own style. He brilliantly captured the blue objects on Santorini in Greece, the metal manhole covers in Seville and hammers in construction sites, and “redefined” them through installation or sculpture. The primitive functions of these daily objects have been interpreted from a modern angle and displayed with a form between order and chaos, calmness and intensity. As a German artist living and working in China, Arnd has witnessed the tremendous changes here. During his frequent roaming on construction sites, he was inspired by the rough yet useful hammers (made by construction workers them self) to create his artworks. Hammers are used in both demolition and reconstruction in the urbanisation and production process, which makes it “destroyer” and champion of “creation and renascence” at the same time. Arnd intends to discuss about the relativity of value and the value of creativity through connection of single objects in various forms or unity of the objects and tools, which is also a metaphor of our memory of the past in today’s mechanical era. Arnd likes the Indian female artist Sakshi Gupta and Antony Gormley. The first who always creates her work with recycled scrap metal or other old objects. This kind of rebuilding redefines these materials as useful or useless, away from their traditional production functions, which also implies the passing of time. The later (describe his works).
As Arnd says, a single hammer is far less powerful than the arrangement of many diverse ones. Arnd makes full use of duplication of images to create unique relations between his work and its surrounding space. Although the repetition of many visual elements is related to appropriation, the integration of artist’s subjective experience transcends appropriation. Hence, signals start to contain brand-new significance. “Hammer Harp” is seeking a delicate balance. The hammers that are supposed to be used in destruction and other rough work are perfectly and quietly lined up in front of a wall, which totally changes their nature. It’s beyond our imagination that this arrangement allows for optimal contact of the metal and produces its pleasing chime-like sound when the first hammer is slightly set in motion. The artist uses this work to arouse audience’s thinking and experience. When enjoying Arnd’s works, audience play a critical role since it’s their interaction with the works that makes the exhibition complete.
Talking about Arnd’s works, artist Song Tao says, “What moves me is not Arnd’s works, but his identity and his passion about artistic creation. Very few designers in China would persistently think about art. Arnd takes hammer, an object closely linked to people’s life and even the industrial civilisation of mankind, to express his understanding about art and society. A very important part in his works is the interaction between audience, artist and the work itself. When audience observe and touch the works, they can really taste the beauty of art.”
“Malleus -Absoluteness ·Relativity” follows Arnd’s first solo exhibition’s name “Malleus”, while “Absoluteness ·Relativity” represents the unsteady situation embodied in his works that are either intense or balanced, flowing or still. “Silent Hammer” and “Hammer Revolution” are supposed to indicate this kind of contrast. Arnd immobilises the hammers in a resin brick. We get an impression of silence, immobility and peace. But Arnd makes this point further by using the qualities of the materials themselves. When speeding up the cooling down period of the resin with inserted hammer, the hammer breaks the resin, which beautifully illustrates its energy and strength, and breaks the relative order as a result.

#arndchristianmueller #arndchristianmüller #germanartistinbeijing #contemporaryart #contemporaryartchina #bbkhildesheim #kunstvereinebersberg #艾恩 #艾恩艺术家 #artbeijing #publicart #publicartinchina #iliketodowhatilike #malleushammer #chimes #hammerharp #crowdsandpower #steelhammer #breakingsilence #absoluteness #relativity #tomorrowimakesomethingbetter #hammersounds #visualarts