Remet Art Award for Gereon Krebber
A large, shiny ´Ring´ leans again the wall: This is the new sculpture of Gereon Krebber, winner of the Remet Art Award ´Shaping the future´ last year. The aluminium sculpture is now on display in the head office in Kent.

You may laugh, you may be overwhelmed: ´Ring´ is belligerent and sloppy at the same time, creating a deadpan humour. Leaning against the wall, slightly bend and out of shape, only the support of the wall seems to prevent the collapse. On the contrary, bold in size, clear in shape and with its shiny surface ´Ring´ is powerful and present. Gereon Krebber, a young sculptor brings contradictive appeals into one thing. ´I would like to convey a sense of a comic and monumental appearance at the same time´, Krebber explains.

Winning the Remet Award ´Shaping the future´ in 2002, Krebber made ´Ring´ at the Royal College of Art after he graduated. Working in the Colleges own foundry, Krebber realised his sculpture together with Richard Rome, the Head of foundry. The prize money of 2.000 Pounds covered production costs and enabled to make a cast otherwise unaffordable straight after college. Remet UK is awarding annually the opportunity to cast a large sculpture at the Royal College of Art.

It took about six months to produce the sculpture – “Far longer than I expected” as Krebber tells with a nod. He used investment casting with the lost wax method. Positive, sanding, mould-making, wax, casting and welding were all made in the Colleges own workshops: ´The size already nearly exceeded the capacity of melted metal´ smiles Krebber. ´Anyway, everything went really well´. The piece was cast in six different sections and then welded together.

With the finish, Krebber took a radical step: The piece now has paint and acrylic on top. It is not aluminium any longer. It started not being happy with the welding marks: ´For the ring, it was crucial to have a perfect flow´, Krebber points out: ´the lines were disturbing´. He wanted a contradictive finish: On the one hand ´almost virtual, like mercury out of 3-D-Design´, on the other hand with spots and marks – ´a hands-on finish, like a quickly repaired car´. Now it is real metal looking like fake metal - ´definitely no truth to materials in the traditional sense´, Krebber laughs.

Jun 2003