FROM THE WALL INTO SPACE
AN IDEA BECOMES REALITY
by Sarah München
For years there had been an idea shelved within VISEone‘s mind: to peel his graffiti tag off the wall and put it three-dimensionally in a room, making it experienceable from multiple sides.
And this idea became a reality in 2014 when he began freeing the letters from their original forms, reimagining them, and composing them as sculptural works of art.
The basis is often his own alias, VISE, but sometimes the “S” sneaks under the “V”. Another time, the letters stretch out in all directions. And should the “I” disturb the flow, he just discards it.
In the end, these pieces become abstractions, concerned mainly with the beauty and the interplay of forms, colors, and material.
Dominating the spaces they are displayed in, these sculptures can be upwards of 1.8 meters tall and weight as much as 120 kilograms, however – much work is required to create each one.
At the beginning of each sculpture, VISEone draws the characters and then vectorizes them, composing a 3D model on his computer.
A company is then enlisted to use this model, laser cutting the letters out of a metal plate. The resulting form is then bent, rolled, and welded together before fine grinding finishes its shape. To finish the piece, though, VISEone applies final touches, whether it is painting or treatment with acid or something entirely different. In the end, each of these works of art are unique in their own way.
VISEone is one of only a few artists in the world to create ‚graffiti sculptures‘ such as these. And he is recognized for it.
For instance, in 2015 his NO LIMIT! sculpture was exhibited at the world‘s largest urban art exhibition, the UrbanArt Biennale, allowing more than 110,000 visitors to view his piece.
„Writing is a central signet of the urban art [form]”, according to Dr. Meinrad Maria Grewenig, the General Director of the World Cultural Heritage Völklinger Hütte and curator of the UrbanArt Biennale 2015, who finishes his thought by stating that „VISEone makes this writing a three-dimensional event and transform the writing into a sculpture.
With this position, he embodies a remarkable direction of urban art.“
