"If looking at the sculptures makes you want to touch them, then a lot has already been achieved”

Anna Fasshauer’s sculptural practice is grounded in a physically intensive engagement with aluminum, a material she bends, hammers, and rolls through embodied force. The body operates here not merely as a tool, but as an agent of transformation, actively reshaping industrial matter. Through this process, the material’s presumed stability is disrupted, giving rise to dents, folds, and deformations that reconfigure its formal and spatial logic.

“I begin with pristine, industrial material and deliberately ruin its flatness and straightness. It is construction preceded by destruction,” Fasshauer states. “During the working process, I destroy a lot, but the destructive element does not come from aggression; rather, it stems from a desire and curiosity—the desire to create new possibilities. A bit like reshuffling the cards.”

The surfaces of the sculptures evoke imagined sensations of touch and make tactility a central part of the aesthetic experience. The cold, rigid, industrial material has turned into something surprisingly human – soft and warm. “If looking at the sculptures makes you want to touch them, then a lot has already been achieved,” the artist states.

This dynamic is evident in works such as the bright colored wall sculptures Apollo (xs)  (2026) and Tellurium (2026). Folded fan-like, evoking paper or gift wrapping, the works destabilizes expectations of materiality. While constructed from metal, it appears – at a distance – soft, pliable, almost weightless. The coldness of the material, however, ultimately challenges this impression, adding a new dimension to its beauty.

Fasshauer works with aluminum not only for its mechanical properties but also for its everyday familiarity. “Aluminum is a material that we encounter everywhere in daily life,” she explains. “Who hasn’t played with aluminum foil? I chose it primarily because of its technical properties, not because of its history or cultural associations.” This familiarity situates the material within everyday experience, even as it is transformed beyond recognition.