Klaus Weber: Thinking Fountains
Water cascades and spouts over Klaus Weber’s bronze figures
Animating the brutalist concrete architecture of the Hayward Gallery, Klaus Weber’s outdoor installation, which features two water-spouting figures and a narrow waterfall, creates a sense of passage for visitors.
The work also embodies Weber’s hopes for what an art gallery can offer: the chance to ‘widen our viewpoint, sharpen our senses and make new connections in our brains’.
Peacock, one of the two bronze sculptures, is a hybrid human whose hips emit an exuberant jet of water, suggesting a magnificent white bird fanning its plumage. At intervals, the cascade of water deluges the sculpture, extinguishing its plumes and marking a tension between what the artist calls ‘gravity and levity’.
Thinking Fountain, the second bronze figure, assumes a pose of contemplation. A fountain of water surges upwards from its neck to suggest the shape of a head, before falling down its bronze body.
Flowing water is an ancient metaphor for human consciousness, still evident in contemporary language when we speak of streams of consciousness or floods of emotion.
Location
Hayward Gallery
About the artist
Klaus Weber was born in 1967, Sigmaringen, Germany. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Supported by
Thinking Fountains is generously supported by the Hayward Gallery Commissioning Committee and HENI, with additional support from the Rothschild Foundation. Commission made possible with Art Fund support.
For your visit
Hayward Gallery Southbank Centre
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