Max Sudhues, Carousel (2006)

http://www.maxsudhues.de/luna_park_carousel.html

I came across Max Sudhues along my research travels recently and was completely struck by this work. Sudhues is a Berlin based artist and what I love the most about this particular work of his is it's simplicity. When one thinks carousels, we think of the over-the-top grandiose decoration and craftsmanship, lots of gold, lights, colour and music. This work strips all that away and creates a carousel as if straight from our childhood imagination, simply and effortlessly. It makes me think of a child who has come home after a day out on a carousel and wanting to recreate the experience with whatever materials are lying around the house.

The title of the work is Carousel and it was created in 2006. It is made of plastic toy animals, a fans front facing, a drinking glass and a record player. Projected onto the sculpture is a slide photograph of a sunset, creating an eerie shadow onto the wall. The animals turn backwards, confusing our natural inclination to see it going forwards.

I wish there was video documentation on-line somewhere of this work moving in the space, but I tried to find one to no avail. We are left to only imagine the carousel moving and turning, creating it's shadow onto the wall. Sudhues exhibited Carousel with another of his works, Luna Park. The images below are the two works together in the space. 

http://www.maxsudhues.de/luna_park_carousel.html

http://www.maxsudhues.de/luna_park_carousel.html

Where Carousel lacks colour, Sudhues has definitely added it to the accompanying video. "Strongly colored, sometimes wiggly and blurry, appearing to be almost dreamlike shots of a deserted, but noisy amusement park, with varicolored play toys, under palmtrees," Max Sudhues. Carousel's meaning is deepened with the addition of Luna Park. It acts as a metaphor for the mind of the person who created Carousel, a visual representation of what was going on whilst creating the work. It's as if the child who we imagine may have created Carousel after their day of experiencing a real one, is imagining freeing the animals into the wild whilst playing with his creation. The boundary of reality and fantasy is beautifully captured and complimented with the combination of these works

Experiencing this work with the sound element would definitely change ones perspective of the work, deepening it's experience for the viewer. Pity we can't.

You can check out more of Max Sudhues work here.