Sculpture, not realized
Roundabout Oberalm/Salzburg (AT), competition

Dimensions variable
Grid structure made of injected galvanized steel pipes (cross-section: 34mm, 2mm wall thickness), natural vine trees

Cloud, a voluminous yet filigreed steel mesh construction, occupies the centre of the roundabout at the town entrance of Oberalm, Salzburg. On display is an amorphous form, a reference to a cloud in the sky as an “unfathomable” body, whose exact contours only exist for the observers. For the sculpture, a photograph of a cloud was first rendered as a wire mesh model and then translated into real space. As in the alternative submission to the competition, transFORM, the idea was to find a contemporary visualisation of processes in the form of an object and to transfer the image logic of the virtual realm into the real.

The surface of the work changes over the course of the seasons. Each spring, the polygonal mesh construction is gradually overgrown with fast-growing wild vines. In summer, the object manifests as an enclosed green surface; in autumn, it acquires yellow to red tints. In winter, the leaves fall off and the construction is visible as such.

The diaphanous form is reminiscent of a model in winter. The growth throughout the year creates an analogy to the process of “mapping”, the layering of a virtual model with surface structures in 3D programs.