Frank Balve's sculptures are a fascinating fusion of form and material. Using a specially developed process, they are created from finely chopped cellulose, which is applied in up to one hundred layers. The blossom-white or pitch-black surfaces exert a strong visual and tactile appeal. Balve's artworks, like his paintings, are subject to deliberate processes of change. His sculptures merge with installations, photographs and videos to create an impressive overall composition that draws the viewer into a multi-sensory space of experience.
01| GELIEBTE 1/2
PAPER SCULPTURES | FEBRUARY 2012
02| SUCHENDE - BEGINNING / MIDDLE / END
| PAPER SCULPTURES | INSTALLATION 120 | SEEKERS BEGINNING / MIDDLE / END | HEIGHT APPROX. 40 CM | MAY 2012
03| EINKAUFSWAGEN
PAPER SCULPTURE | 0.98 X 109 X 0.6 M | JANUARY 2013
04| HAIFISCH
SCULPTURE | PART OF THE PARK INSTALLATION | HAIFISH GLASS BOX | STONE | 500 x 1150 x 250 MM | APRIL 2013
05| ENTWURZELUNG
PAPER SCULPTURE | PAPER PULP ON WOOD / PLASTER | 120 X 100 X 150 CM | JANUARY 2016
06| KLEIDERLEICHEN
SCULPTURE | INSTALLATION CABIN 2 | CLOTHING / FLAME RUSSIA / PAPER CELLULOSE / WOOD | 220 x 40 CM (3 UNIQUE PIECES) | 2013
Frank Balve's "Kabine" is actually a house within a house, which with its simple basic forms
reminiscent of a chapel or a playhouse. Inside the black plastered house, which is located in a darkened room, a mysterious scene is illuminated by strobe-like light: From under a bed, vast quantities of old clothes spill out, taken from the estates of deceased people. Cut into strips that correspond to the dimensions of the narrow entrance door, the clothes also form the basis of the seven paper sculptures that populate the narrow space around the house as "corpses of clothes". The viewer is not only encouraged to have a polysensory experience of the space and actively participate in the creation of meaning, but also becomes a performative element of the installation himself when he looks through the window panes and encounters the gazes of other visitors behind the panes opposite.