Humvee Dumvee shat on the wall,
Marked it as his, Heimat and all.
All the king’s horses, all the king’s men,
Polished the filth and sold it as “then”.
At Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, I presented two monumental sculptures based on the exact forms and dimensions of the Hummer — the civilian version of the military Humvee. The works move between vehicle, furniture, and architecture. They are constructed from light, everyday materials and suggest monumentality, while their cheap materials and simple construction gradually undermine this impression of grandeur.
The exhibition space is bright and clear, with overhead lighting and clean architectural lines. Its emptiness evokes a showroom: objects appear as icons, detached from context and elevated to promise. Within this setting, the sculptures present themselves as obstacles. They follow the proportions of the room but disrupt its logic through their mass and unusual forms.
Nearby are the Mercedes-Benz Museum and the Porsche Museum, where cars are elevated to cultural heritage and technological triumph. Against this backdrop, the SUV takes on a particular charge. It suggests autonomy, protection, and power, but primarily functions as a status symbol. In the showroom, every car is impotent in a sense: speed, weight, and capacity remain potential rather than action. The Humvee intensifies this effect. Its explicit machismo emphasizes stillness: dominance exists largely as image.
The sculptures investigate not only physical power but also how power is staged and performed. This recalls the work of the French philosopher Michel Serres, who describes how leaving a trace — dirt, boundary, or inscription — marks territory and exercises authority. In the exhibition, this principle translates in two ways: through the suggested traces the sculptures leave in space, and through the theatrical manner in which they assert their presence.
Scat Mobile explores power through residue and marking: the sculpture shows power literally and animalistically through excrement, which suggests traces. Power becomes visible here as an inscription — physical, direct, and unmistakable. The other sculpture, Humvee Dumvee EeEfDee, examines the presentation of power: how force is constructed through form, scale, and display, and how quickly this construction becomes theatrical. Together, the works show two sides of the same mechanism: physical claim and symbolic performance.
These layers of performative power also reveal connections to populist strategies. Just as political power is sometimes enacted as a theatre of image and symbols, the sculptures show how visible claims, exaggeration, and projections of authority converge. Vulgarity plays a role here too: words, images, and traces that occupy space and provoke public reaction, echoing Serres’ idea of power as inscription and residue.
A limited number of drawings accompany the sculptures. They repeat motifs but do so more directly and bodily. Together, the works reveal how power materializes, is performed, and ultimately falls apart.
Works on the floor:
Scat mobile – wood, plastic, steel, 3D print and paper – 493 x 231 x 200 cm – 2025
Andre – chair, leather cushion and wood – 100 x 70 x 70 cm – 2024
Humvee Dumvee EeEfDee -wood, steel, textile, caster wheels, car pedals and toilet seat – 595 x 200 x 200 cm – 2017
Works on the wall:
Tunnel of Love – ink, pencil, watercolour and sepia on paper – 62 x 103 cm – 2009
Choking a chicken – ink, watercolour, pencil and collage on paper – 71 x 98 cm – 2006-2015
zij zijn dood en ik ben klein – ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper – 45,5 x 60 cm – 2023
Unreal City – ink, pencil, watercolour, gouache and collage on paper – 45,5 x 60 cm – 2016
From Russia with love – ink, pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint and gouache on paper – 45,5 x 60 cm – 2023
9 studies for White Hole & Black Hole and for Malice the Goon and Practice the Goon – ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache on Xerox – 29,7 x 42 cm – 2014
Yellow Mustang – ink, pencil, watercolour, and gouache on paper – 45,5 x 60 cm – 2023
2CV – ink, pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint and gouache on paper – 45,5 x 60 cm – 2023
Good cop, bad cop – ink, pencil, watercolour, gouache and collage on paper – 45,5 x 60 cm – 2016
Sunburst I – ink, pencil, watercolour, sepia and collage on paper – 72 x 97 cm – 2012
Sunburst II – ink, pencil, watercolour and sepia on paper – 72 x 97 cm – 2012
Nose job by night – ink, pencil, sepia and watercolour – 67 x 93 cm – 2012
Many thanks to: Ronald van Lit, Ivan Cornelissen-Wiegel, Jeroen Hoogstraten, Ben Zegers, Katharina Papadopoulos, Karin Fritz, Jessica Widmaier, Sara Hernández und Harald Jahnke.
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