Nougat, 2009
diverse materials, 160 x 160 x 70 cm
© KATJA SCHENKER

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process at Sitterwerk

© KATJA SCHENKER and Kunstgiesserei, St.Gall

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Nougat (detail), 2009
photo © HARIS HARARIS

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I discovered the work of KATJA SCHENKER at Môtiers and learned that she is used to transform matter by devising situations in which her actions bring about fundamental change: materials undergo modification, dissolve, merge and consolidate again. Enlisting strength and endurance to persevere until the action has reached its inevitable conclusion, she successfully conjures poetic images with specifically social and political traits.

She realized the work Nougat during a studio fellowship in the Sitterwerk two years ago. A rectangular hole in the earth was excavated and then filled with concrete along with: firesand, lime, kaolin, bitumen, colophony, brass, copper, bronze, graphite, wood, marble, granite, river stones, plaster, slate, hard coal, charcoal, asphalt, brick sand, silicon, aluminum, bamboo, hay, pine cones, straw, cork, mussels, pigments, lamp black, coconut, chalk, clay, pumice stone, tuff, lava rock, gneiss, quartz and plant seeds. The artist estimated a weight of around five tons, to afterwards be lifted from the pit and cut into a precise four-sided cube with a diamond saw.