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A world full of fantasy
A white room with rusty steel tables in the middle. From there the visitor is eyed by bizarre underwater creatures… Is it a crab? Or is there a crab inside a shell? The creatures turn out to be sculptures. While some sculptures reveal their identity, others invite the viewer to reflect. Taucher.Net journalist Sarah Wünsche was on site in a world full of fantasy.
Wild boar jaws
As a child, the sixty-year-old Berthold Welter had one great career wish: he wanted to become a professional diver. Instead, today's hobby diver has devoted himself to sculpture since 1976. Water is and remains his medium, however. He finds the underwater world incredible. According to Welter, underwater things work that are impossible on land. As an example, he mentions crabs and crayfish, with their long antennas at the end of which there are small spherical eyes. It is these forms, as well as microbiology, that inspire the artist.
In his current exhibition in the Kirschey Gallery in Solingen, 28 of his 70 underwater sculptures are on display. When asked if it is concrete, he answers with a happy smile. This assumption delights him, because then he can tell more about his materials. Welter uses pure white marble from South Tyrol. The white marble is mined in the underground there. Marble as basic material means that the artist has only one chance per block to create an animal. It is sawn, polished and modelled. This is done until he has 'dematerialised' the marble block and created an artificial animal.
Antennas and feet made of deer and roe deer antlers, mouths made of wild boar jaws with real teeth, tentacles made of glass - for the viewer this gives the impression that they are real living beings. Welter does not have a plan when he starts a sculpture... He often feels as if he is remotely controlled, as if he were his own tool. The sculptures are created automatically. While a small sculpture takes about two to three days, a large one takes three weeks. Any of them can be purchased.
The exhibition
The exhibition takes place until 08/24/2020 every Thursday and Sunday from 14h-18h in the gallery Kirschey. The entrance is free of charge.
Soon an underwater exhibition for divers is planned in cooperation with Thomas Langer. Taucher.Net will report.
More information about the artist and his works: http://www.weltersbeste.de
Gallery Kirschey, Alexander-Coppel-Strasse 22, Solingen
https://www.galerie-kirschey.de/galerie/