The Things We Are Made Of: Ulrike Mohr

Carbon (C6)

An exhibition, C6 (Carbon), by German artist Ulrike Mohr will be on view at WAMx. Mohr works by carbonising wood and wooden objects. For her, working with charcoal represents a unique form of concentration and compression. She is inspired by the sensations her work evokes, such as the scent and sound of the charred pieces, as well as the almost ritualistic nature of the production process.

Despite its organic origins charcoal has the appearance of a black mineral, which makes its lightness so surprising. Charcoal is crystalline, light as a feather, fragile and entirely light-absorbent. Microorganisms cannot consume charcoal – the timeless, carbonised objects are preserved forever. At the same time charcoal is very fragile and ephemeral. Mohr works in between these two contrasting opposites.  

From observing nature to spatial drawings

Ulrike Mohr´s artistic approach utilizes material transformation processes that are influenced not only by complex research and handed-down knowledge, but also by chance occurrences. Her position as a sculptor arises from the observation of nature and a process-oriented treatment of context-related materials, which she transfers into poetic installations whose temporal dimensions are intrinsic to ephemeral substances. Over the past years, the burning of char has become a central modus operandi in her work. This now almost extinct profession of gradually heating wood in the absence of air until it is rendered physically constant is practiced by the artist herself, taking into account the various historical, cultural, environmental and metaphorical implications associated with carbon. Mohr refers to her works as ‘spatial drawings’ – drawings made with charcoal, one of the oldest drawing materials, not applying pigment on paper, but manifest as lines in three-dimensional space. (Eva Scharrer)

Ulrike Mohr (b. 1970) lives and works in Berlin.

Photo: Ville Mäkilä, Museum Centre of Turku.