Hella Gerlach’s artistic research explores correlations that exist between architectural, physical and social spaces. The artist’s approach is based on the very same nature of corporeality: her aim is not some kind of accurate formal final result, but to make the intermediate moments that shape her works stand out, leaving room for an open and flexible perspective which softens its static dimension. The objects’ intangible traits are what hint at the given final form. Her sculptures are frequently made from padded fabric of previously worn clothes, which manage to show the idea of social space and create a unique form of different energies: the fabrics carry the memories that make us grow and transform. The artist becomes the spokesperson of a community state, by laying bare the intertwinings and feelings the body expresses when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Connection between bodies is the main focus of Hella Gerlach's works.
The series Let’s take a moment to let that settle II includes as many as twenty-eight sculptures, each of them titled HANGOVER and marked with a number. For the In Sesto Prize, Gerlach specifically created a new shape, by intertwining and wrapping three pre-existing pieces – HANGOVER #2, HANGOVER #3, HANGOVER #17 – into a brand new sculpture. These tube-like padded forms hang from the ceiling and rotate smoothly around their axes, and by doing so, the sculpture embraces the viewers’ presence. Each colorful piece is a vehicle for physical and psychological states that are determined by the mood expressed in their appearance – heaviness, union, contortion – and the materials they are made of – rigidity, softness, smoothness. The viewer is invited to smell, as well as touch, the installation, which is lightly scented due to the padding made of wool, ash, perforate St John's-wort, and belladonna. With this work, the artist describes a state of excess: waking up hungover, the moment when the unconscious inner self comes out and one feels like they are hanging from the ceiling and spinning around their spine. The dramatic theme is minimized by the irony of the shapes, which evoke the silhouettes of children’s toys.
