The collaboration with Vera Röhm and her Lichtstrahleiche began back in 2009.
At 10 metres tall, the bronze and Plexiglas oak is not only a very tall sculpture, but its combination of bronze and Plexiglas alone makes it technically complex and conceptually intricate. The connection clearly alludes to the contrast between nature and the human product, and the artwork initiates a dialogue between organic growth and human technology.
The Lichtstrahleiche is a cast of an oak tree from a forest in Darmstadt. Cut in half lengthways down the centre, the deceptively real-looking bronze oak trunk also contains a 10 m long Plexiglas panel.
With this work, Vera Röhm takes up the artistic idea of the "objet trouvé" - the combination of something found with something she has created herself.
The 10 metre long oak trunk was brought to us in pieces, moulded and cast, after which 5 bronze sections were invisibly welded together again. The tree has been transformed into its own image, so to speak, because in its appearance the tree still looks like an oak tree, but its materiality is completely different. The selected patina also massively reinforces the illusion of a real tree, a perfect image of a natural phenomenon but irritatingly deconstructed by the Plexiglas.
Another aspect worth mentioning is the diversity of the two materials used. Bronze is considered to be one of the oldest materials used by man (evidence dates from 2500-2000 BC), while Plexiglas is an invention of the early 20th century (Vera Röhm's grandfather Otto Röhm is considered to be the inventor of acrylic glass).
The light ray corpse is a beautiful example of a work of art that unites extreme opposites.
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