In her catalog, Dorothea Nold shows her travel photographs for the first time alongside her artistic work. These photos, which were primarily shot on slide film, in a certain sense serve as the foundation for her works. An essential relationship is palpable between the photographs,travel stories, drawings, and sculptures. This connection, however, is not immediately tangible because a mimetic principle only penetrates slowly. As I flip through the book’s pages, an image of intersecting lines forms in my mind that define spaces like
compartments; sometimes filled with emptiness, sometimes filled with life. At all levels, the anchoring in time remains open: is this reinforced concrete skeleton under construction or in decay? Is a living space being created here or is it an already abandoned unfinished building? Where does the artist’s interest in statics and gridded structures come from and what does the fragility of her sculptures refer to?

In 2008, Dorothea Nold experienced a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in China. The ground moved beneath her feet in the park where she stood, as well as the surrounding houses and bridges. This experience confirmed an underlying feeling that she had had since childhood: namely, that stability and security are deceptive and can quickly topple at any moment. This proverbial sense of “losing the ground under one’s feet” inscribed itself deeply in her bodily memory. Since then, Dorothea Nold has consciously gravitated towards working
with unstable components in her artistic practice, such as materials whose properties contradict their purpose.Bearing names like Gebäude II [Building II] or Yellow The Sun Sun Tower, the sculptures recall architectonic structures frozen in a state of misalignment. They were built in different materials, none of which have any fixed construction properties, and are therefore unsuitable to produce clear, repetitive structures. Within these frameworks, the lines define irregular surfaces and as soon as the viewer moves, other layers behind them become visible. Visual axes shift and the in-between spaces appear to change their relationship to one another. She built the first works of this kind from modeling clay. The challenge of having to fight for the result and let gravity participate in the process is intentional. Inevitably, complete failure is always a possibility. The process of modelling is thereby not a routine, but instead an adventure. The artist cuts relatively regular strips, connects vertical and horizontal struts at the intersections with slip, and builds row upon row on top of each other until the structure grows up into a threedimensional lattice tower. Due to the rapid drying and resulting brittleness of the clay, the sculpture must be completed quickly, i.e. in one pass and in one day. No time remains for playful deviations from the original concept. The framework must be raised and simultaneously stabilized in order to be able to dry slowly and evenly. In the drying process, gravity then has an even greater effect than was the case during building. As long as the clay is still moist, it expands and, according to the laws of physics, tends to sag downwards. The intersecting points are twice as thick and do not yield as easily. This results in different shifts from one compartment to the next, and the tower as a whole inevitably wobbles in one direction or the other. What’s astonishing is that within this search for balance, the sculpture solidifies and finds its own stability. Similar to how the principle of the right angle occurs only rarely in nature, the amorphous form that ultimately finds itself is reminiscent of earthquakeresistant construction.

In 2020, Dorothea Nold transferred the same principle of construction to a production process that was new for her, aluminum casting. The sculpture is thereby modeled from wax, the strips are cut from wax sheets and fused at the intersections. Then the “lostwax process” was used. This means that each wax model is cast in a fireproof chamotte, melted out, and the resulting hollow form is filled with liquid aluminum. The pieces are not reproducible. Thus, several aluminum towers in a similar style to the ceramics were created, but much higher and more playful; with arches, bays, irregular trusses and ornamentation on the vertical bars. They are reminiscent of urban development left to itself. In fact, these forms derive from Dorothea Nold’s archive of travel slides. The ensuing dialogue between the artist and her work in the process of creation was quite different from that of the predecessors made in clay. Because the wax retains the given shape, the sculpture can be created much more slowly and its form can be pursued over the course of days—as long as it doesn’t begin to melt in summer temperatures. While building the sculpture, the artist already inserts the wax cast channels, which connect the sculpture with a trunk that stands in the middle and later allows the metal to flow in. Conveniently, this provides additional stability at this stage because it is again a dizzyingly wobbly construction: contrary to static logic, the basic shape is narrow at the bottom, while towards the top it spreads and bulges in all possible directions. In the case of these three aluminum towers, it was important to Dorothea Nold that the works corresponded with her own height and thus are at eye level. This creates a sense of relevance for the artist; a counterpart with whom she directly negotiates something. The tower, which was actually intended to be architectural, takes on an elemental and skeletal quality. Another aspect emerges in the handling of the new material, namely the distinction between the treated surface, like a glaze on ceramic, and the optical directness of the molding material. While in the ceramic versions she let out her proclivity for bright, gaudy colors, as was already decisive in her choice of slide film, she consciously wanted to direct her focus towards structure with the aluminum works. Because of this, the silver-gray appearance of the metal isn’t processed, but rather the opposite: the matte cast skin is largely still present. Fingerprints and other traces of labor were purposefully not reworked. Even burrs, which often remain in metal casting, are welcome extensions of the form and surprising changes to what was originally intended. The material brings its own vividness and thusits façade is also both an ornament and a carrier of form. Dorothea Nold’s sculptural understanding develops in the direction of making the materiality visible instead of the surface within this work cycle. Her basic approach to life is reflected in her preference for the purist,as well as her embrace of the unpredictable. Just as the enterprise of traveling backpacker-style or by old car through several countries invites chance to fill the spaces between routes and places, Dorothea Nold also seeks adventure in the creative process. The assurance that the search for a coherent result will succeed even without a well-constructed plan, as well as welcoming chance and granting it the role of storyteller, corresponds to the exciting feeling of setting out into the unknown. In her luggage she has the belief in her own intuition as the most reliable protection and guide. Not being embedded in a familiar environment, but rather reflecting upon oneself shows which elements of one’s own culture and socialization are still relevant in the new context. To feel this and to enjoy the slight uncertainty it triggers is the sense of grappling with oneself and the world that Dorothea Nold always seeks. Aware that everything is in transformation and ultimately ephemeral, she wants to exploit the potentiality of what is possible. Backing down at the start is not part of her philosophy.