CARBON 12 is holding AIR ELECTRIC, a solo exhibition by German artist Michael Sailstorfer, famous for his inventive transformations of everyday materials into conceptually rich works. The show furthers Sailstorfer’s ongoing investigation into themes of energy, motion, and perception and will be open to the public until 23 May 2025.
In AIR ELECTRIC, Sailstorfer delves into the multifaceted concept of energy, examining it as a source, storage medium, transmitter, and essential fuel for life. The exhibition brings together three distinct series that highlight the artist’s engagement with natural processes and industrial materials, challenging traditional sculptural boundaries.
The C-Batterie series pays homage to German artist Joseph Beuys’ Capri-Batterie (1985) which comprises a bright yellow light bulb in a socket connected to a lemon and comments on natural finite resources. Sailstorfer reimagines this artwork by crafting its wax models and placing them inside beehives, allowing bees to build honeycomb structures over them. Over time, bees encase the forms in delicate honeycombs, after which the sculptures are cast in bronze. The resulting sculptures juxtapose the permanence of metal and the fragile temporality of organic matter, raising questions about ecological cycles and cultural consumption.
In a related body of work, Sailstorfer presents bronze casts of light bulbs, also created using the beehive process. Suspended from the ceiling, these sculptures reference their original function while embodying the transformation of mundane objects into art through natural collaboration and industrial processes.
Meanwhile, the AIR ELECTRIC series continues Sailstorfer’s exploration of landscape imagery through unconventional media. Using a stretched copper mesh as his canvas, Sailstorfer introduces a steady electrical current. As a stainless-steel rod wrapped in fleece and soaked in silver electrolyte touches the mesh, silver ions bond with the copper and form abstract compositions. These silvery-blue “electric landscapes”, reminiscent of pale clouds against a golden sky, suggest an intersection between technology and the sublime.
About the artist
Michael Sailstorfer (b. 1979, Velden, Germany), who lives and works in Berlin (Germany), studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Munich, Germany) and Goldsmiths College (London, UK).
Sailstorfer’s multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, performance, painting, film, and photography. He is well-known for repurposing everyday objects (car tyres, wrecking balls, popcorn machines, etc.) and natural elements into performative installations that challenge conventional contexts and meanings. The artist explores themes of transience, destruction, and absurdity, asking not just what art is but what it can do.
Sailstorfer has displayed his creations in numerous exhibitions across the globe, such as Human (CHOI&CHOI Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, 2023); TEAR SHOW (solo) (Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, New York City, USA, 2019); I Wish This Was A Song. Music In Contemporary Art (The Museum Of Contemporary Art Oslo, Norway, 2012); Clouds (solo) (Modern Art, Oxford, UK, 2011); and Walls in the Street (Siemens Art Program, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia, 2008), among others.
Sailstorfer’s accolades include the August Macke Award (2017), the Robert Jacobsen Prize of the Würth Foundation (2016), and the Scholarship of the Günther-Peill-Stiftung (Düren, Germany, 2008-2010), to name a few. His artworks are in esteemed public collections, such as the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), Berlinische Galerie (Berlin), and S.M.A.K. (Ghent, Belgium).
To get more information about AIR ELECTRIC, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in viewing Mythological Love and MATAB, two exhibitions at XVA Gallery.
