Tobias Hauser

Daimler Block, 2006

Tobias Hauser created a connected series of works in nine parts called Daimler Block in response to a commission for the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection; the set consists of three Bones, three wood prints and three pistol butts. The Bones work group by Tobias Hauser, started in the early 90s, consists of wall sculptures in half-relief, mounted on backgrounds and covered with picture glass at the front. Things that impinge upon our attention as branches, scrub, undergrowth, placed in front of an open clearing, adopt a social ‘point of view’. Shelter and hiding-place reveal an isolated, apparently threatened view of society from below. The hardness of the sculptural language is mitigated by coloring in shades of light blue, silver and white, which also appear in the wood prints. Corresponding with the significance level of deterrence in the Bones, the Pistol Butts series introduces the idea of an almost archaic resistance, expressed by individuals against their environment. The wall sculptures in stained wood are worked with a wealth of detail, with traces of use, wear, metal badges etc. Tobias Hauser tells us in and through his work about the symbolism of the claim to power and of the no less symbolic resistance that is formulated cyclically against those in power.