"CAIRNS INTO CUBES"
Mountainwork VIII

For we humans, an object from the physical world is a sign, if something can be conveyed through it or even by it, if it's an information carrier or if it - as a speech signal - refers to something. This reference can be ambiguous or unambiguous, simplistic or diverse, rough or subtle and obvious or concealed.
Communication signals do not only have to consist of words from spoken or written language. On the contrary, hand and facial movements, like those used in deaf and dum sign language, are signals which convey information; the snapped twig in the rain forest or the stone pyramid in the desert conveys to the hero, who knows how to decifer these secret codes, certain information and
aids him further.
Occassionally in the alps - if we are attentive - we also come across so called cairns, which lie beyond the forest boundary. These rough looking cone or pyramid shaped structures, consisting of various sizes of stones, are artistically assembled and although built without mortar, they are relatively weatherproof. The simplest meaning of such a construction is that it has been built by human hands; a more subtle one however is, that it has been an aid to orientation for hunters. Moreover, I suspect that cairns, such as described, which also exist in other mountain ranges, still have a religious meaning.
(Wilhelm K. Essler, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Frankfurt University, "Was Zeichen zeigen und was sie verhüllen", extract from an essay about Mountainworks)

My intentions are already apparent from the title "cairns into cubes"; by adding more stones to these cairns, I shall extend them into cube form, which is undoubtedly, due to its precise shape, recognisable as a work of art. The old meaning becomes, so to say, indistinguishable and a new one emerges. The former orientation aid or victory sign becomes an iconographical sculpture. Human presence at this spot is thus made clearly visible. The sculpture is a continuation of work, which was started by unknown persons, a logical process which does not contradict the act of human development in any way.

cairns into cubes

Intervention into landscape
Rofenhöfe bei Vent, Ötztal/Tirol, 1996.

The intention of the artist is already very clear from the title: "cairns into cubes". Kleinlercher transformed a cairn near the Rofenhöfe in the deepest Ötztal, of which the origin and meaning were unknown, into a cube, by rearranging the tower of stones and finally covering it with concrete, which in its relatively precise execution, strengthened through the addition of a monochrome black colour pigment, using iron oxide, causes a passing hiker to unsuspectingly recognize a work of art. The symbol was, so to say, disguised by itself, a new meaning emerges. An iconographic art monument is created from the orientation marking or triumph symbol. A last tip of the transformed cairn sticks out against the mountain sky from the black cube, with dimensions 1,30 m x 1,30 m x 1,30 m, a gentle reminder of something which can no longer be seen, which obtained an even more distinctive presence through the disguise. The small broken patches here and there, which hint at the content of the object, gives the black cube an almost sculptural character. The appropriation and alienation of landscape, through which human presence was clearly identifiable at this spot, gains, by means of the broken patches the chance of a creative compensation by nature, within a time span comprehensible for man.