Ulrich Eller

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The sound artist Ulrich Eller

Ulrich Eller (born May 9, 1953 in Leverkusen ) is a German artist in the field of installative sound art . His artistic work has been concerned with space-related sound and form creations since 1978 .

Career

After studying painting with Herbert Kaufmann at the HDK Berlin (1977 to 1983), he created sculptural works: Eller devoted himself to performances , walk-in installations with sound and modified musical instruments . In 1994 he received the professorship in the field of sculpture and space, cross-border artistic staging at the FH Hannover . In 2001 he became professor for sound sculpture / sound installation at the Kurt-Schwitters Forum at the FH Hannover. Since 2004 Eller has held the only professorship for sound sculpture and sound installation at German art colleges at the HBK Braunschweig . Ulrich Eller is a member of the German Association of Artists . He lives in Norderheistedt in Dithmarschen .

Works

At the end of the 1970s, Eller was concerned with electronic circuits. Made from electronic waste, he brought them to table concerts. In Eller's graphic, installation and acoustic work, there were discussions about various artistic positions. He developed important connections to artists of the New York art landscape, especially with John Cage , Philip Corner , Earle Brown, Christian Wolff , Terry Fox and Takehisa Kosugi. He also took up approaches from the European avant-garde - represented by Paul Panhuysen, Martin Riches, and John Driscoll.

drawing

As a master student of Herbert Kaufmann, Eller developed a handwriting early on, the course of which was repeatedly interpreted in comparison with the works of Cy Twombly and John Cage . These references referred to abstract signs and infinite lines in Eller's works, which were reminiscent of a time shaped by art: as a combination of inscriptions on surfaces and recordings of the noises made by pens on fine and coarse paper.

In a double (recording) drawing process, Eller established relationships between the visual and acoustic dimensions of the drawings, using tones as sculptural material. Chalk drawn across the floor, the scratching of a garden rake: traces of this kind reached a dramaturgy in Eller's drawings that worked like handwriting and was remembered. In his arrangement, the artist had acoustic material and the process of its production directly referenced to one another so that he could receive and identify the trace as a drawing (art) , notation and remembered acoustic formation of the handwriting. The material developed in this way led to a completely new, original music . By theming acoustic components, Eller modified different materials in the interest of expanding perception - the artist transformed light paper as well as the materiality of heavy floor slabs. In Eller's sketches, notations and drawings, the paper and other surfaces are formed as membranes , the properties of which are themselves part of the respective work.

Conceptual use of musical instruments

Eller: "My works are like a compositional game, not in terms of pitches, chords and tempos, but as a dialogue between material, form and sound." Eller's path leads from traditional playing on musical instruments, especially the electric guitar, to new techniques of sound generation on guitars. The artist works here z. B. with instruments that are on a swinging wooden stage and are stimulated by careful running movements to change the sustain . Tone ranges are initially determined by stones, but these change in the process.

Sculptural works - acoustic material research and transformation processes

For Ulrich Eller, sound offers the ideal prerequisite for pointing out the hidden properties of different materials. “I see my work as a draft for a new, unknown reality that reveals itself to anyone who is willing to notice it.” The noises that arise during drawings, inscriptions and the scanning of surfaces are recorded with microphones and as an acoustic one Registration received at the places. This creates a special combination of physical / gestural touches that leave signs. At Eller, such traces are fixed with their noise components. What remains are two mementos from an artistic process that has now been preserved for a certain time, namely the time it was created.

performance

Ellers with sound installation “Ballon”;
2017 in the tea pavilion on the Hermannshof in Völksen

This shows Eller's experience as a musician. Certain events in time are artistically arranged in such a way that an unmistakable sequence results which follows a dramaturgy . The audience is an important part of the concept as a reference value: “My work in front of an audience began with publicly made processes of action that demonstrated the emergence of an audio-visual event in the form of an installation. From this, material processes developed, usually stones for sound generation, as contrasts in front of an audience. First with various electric guitars, then with piano rests and then on stringed instruments specially designed for this production with electrical amplification without natural resonance. With this set of instruments and as a concept for a duo, a series of concerts with Paul Haubrich took place. The concerts came alive through the interpretation of the material used. The specific properties of selected stones, such as round, oval, light, heavy, rough, smooth and their shape became an impulse for movements on strings to generate sound. "

Environments

"Hörstein", 1995;
Schäferhof, Neuenkirchen (Lüneburg Heath)

The formal design of found rooms allows certain accents of the architectural structure to be emphasized through their relation to the art object. In this way, Eller focuses attention on details, which always work in relation to the room. Size, material and light conditions complement each other.

Designed spaces

With his three-dimensional works, Eller questions the constitution of architectural space in that the space itself is viewed as a sculpture. It is often extremely minor settlements that reshape the entire situation as artistic shifts. Eller is interested in the internal / external relationship of acoustic phenomena, which question the separations by means of walls, skins, shells and allow permeability and resonance relationships to be artistically processed.

Exhibitions, sound carriers (selection)

  • 1987 documenta 8 , Kassel.
  • 1994 The silent ones , Sculpture Museum Glaskasten, Marl.
  • 1996 Sonambiente, Festival for Hearing and Seeing , Berlin.
  • 1999 Sub Raum , ZKM, Karlsruhe.
  • 1999 The XX. Century. A Century of Art in Germany , Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
  • 2003 Conceptualisms in Music, Art and Film , Akademie der Künste, Berlin.
  • 2006 Sonambiente, Sound Art Sound Art , Berlin.
  • Ulrich Eller, Paul Haubrich: CD Lapidar II , Berlin / Cologne 1993.

further reading

Web links

Commons : Ulrich Eller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Members "E" / Eller, Ulrich (accessed on July 27, 2015)
  2. ↑ Thomas Millroth: Ulrich Eller, drawings: 1978-2007. in: Sonoric ecologies. Baltic Sea Biennial of Sound Art. Exhibition cat. ed. v. Christoph Metzger, Saarbrücken 2008; P. 28 ISBN 978-3-89727-397-9 and FAZ , 21/3/2001; P. 34.
  3. ^ Reception: Jürgen Schweinbraden Freiherr von Wichmann-Eichhorn: Ulrich Eller. in: sound spaces. Exhib. Cat. Ed. from the Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken 1988; P. 21ff. ISBN 3-925381-13-9 .
  4. ↑ FAZ , 21/3/2001, p. 34.
  5. ↑ Press release on the exhibition: Ulrich Eller, Geräuselager. Klangkunstforum, Berlin 2000.
  6. ↑ On Eller's material research in the reception of works, see (selection): Marion Saxer: Sound art in the process of medial differentiation. in: Music Concepts. Special tape. Sound art. XI / 2008, edition text + criticism, ed. by Ulrich Tadday, Munich 2008; P. 186ff. ISBN 978-3-88377-953-9 ; Rolf Langebartels: Events in space, time and situation. Sculptural works by Gianozzo. in: exhib. Cat .: Conceptualisms in Music, Art and Film. Academy of the Arts Berlin, ed. by Christoph Metzger, Saarbrücken 2003; S. 148. ISBN 3-89727-235-0 and Horst Hellinger: The other side. in: Ulrich Eller. Hörstein. Exhibition cat. Art Association Springhornhof Neuenkirchen (ed.), Neuenkirchen 1995; P. 24ff.
  7. ^ Ulrich Eller: Letter to Christoph Metzger. October 2001. For reference to the audience at Eller, see: Jürgen Schweinbraden Freiherr von Wichmann-Eichhorn: Resonance as a sculpture or: The graphic sound project. in: Ulrich Eller, catalog of works. Künstlerhaus Bethanien (ed.), Berlin 1987, pp. 68/69. ISBN 3-923479-15-8 .
  8. ↑ On the reception of the work (environments) see (selection): Christoph Metzger: Ulrich Eller. Concert for snail piano with pier and drawings. Saarbrücken 2007; P. 22 ISBN 978-3-89727-368-9 ; Marion Saxer: en passant. Attention strategies of sound art in public space. in: Sonambiente, Sound Art Sound Art. Exh. Cat. Akademie der Künste Berlin (ed.), Heidelberg 2006, p. 258 ISBN 3-936636-93-1 ; Diether de la Motte: Music forms. Forum Music Education Volume 38, Augsburg 1997; S. 482, ISBN 3-89639-160-7 and Bernd Schulz: The other language of the material. in: Ulrich Eller, catalog of works. Series: Berlin Contemporary Artists, Volume 95, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, NBK Berlin (ed.), 1992; P. 8ff. ISBN 3-925381-31-7 .
  9. ↑ For the reception of the work see (selection): Gislind Nabakowski: The loudspeaker as a musician. in: FAZ , 15/5/2001; Helga de la Motte-Haber: Sound Art - A New Genre ?. in: sound art. to exhib. Sonic ambience. Festival for hearing and seeing. Academy of the Arts Berlin (ed.), Munich / New York 1996; S. 16. ISBN 3-7913-1699-0 and Helga de la Motte-Haber: Sound art: Beyond the art genres. Further development and redefinition of aesthetic ideas. in: Music Concepts. Special tape. Sound art. XI / 2008, edition text + criticism, ed. by Ulrich Tadday, Munich 2008; P. 16. ISBN 978-3-88377-953-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Eller, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Leverkusen