The Floor Sculpture Compoed of Eighteen Parts :Traces of Boreas

The “transience” is the subject of “Traces of Boreas" by the artist of Christa Gebhardt. She groups the eighteen pieces together, which can be changed into three rows by a slight change.

The inspiration for the work is drawn from the large weathered slabstones, which have been placed there for over 100 years, on the roof under which Christa Gebhardt and Johannes Gebhardt lives. The stones were blown from the house. For such an experience, Christa Gebhardt names her work the Greek God Of North Wind “Boreas”, and promotes such an accidental phenomenon into a dimension beyond the time. In addition, it is quite clear from the name to her work that it is the work demonstrating the natural force defeating the man. That the stone was blown down is accidental, but the art is eternal. The artist has not retained its original shape, but regarded it as a new starting point of her working：she has the natural and unknown power with her clay. The forms and surfaces are adopted to the clay sculpture, depicting the traces of the weathering process on the stones. The work is an utmost aesthetic piece because the marks left on the stones are so beautiful. What has happened to the stone may be accidental, but it is an ever-changing mark with hidden secrets.

Christa Gebhardt places the clay slabs on the floor and does not install the work like a mural. Through such a process, the artist searches for, all the more, a relationship between the sculpture and the nature, the surrounding environment and the open space. The relationship between the sculpture and visitors has been reversed. When the sculpture is placed on the ground, it is a part of the earth, a variation of the earth. It is in a dialogue with the earth. In addition, the lighting on the sculpture placed on the ground is quite different the ones hung on walls. On the one hand, the light will highlight the sculpture on the ground and, on the other hand, the light gives the clay slabs the same “artistic demonstrations”, no different from others. Such an art process will eventually lead the visitors to a way to appreciate the work from an aesthetic perspectxve. However, Christa Gebhardt, as a matter of fact, has not been satisfied with such a result. It is a known fact that her work looks pretty with the presence of the nature, but she also regards her work as a hint of transience and surpassing. She writes that “This is an experiment to grasp the time and the age, and the one to fight against the transience.”