On the illusion of height and depth

___ The monumental and the staging of the corner are essential components of a series that discovers towering for itself in wall pieces and freestanding works. Where as Passeo still leads into spatial depths, works such as Torre strive upwards. But neither is content merely to be large. Both aim to seem even larger than they are. Once again, the works produce an image of something that does not exist. They are not as enormous as they seem if one considers only their actual dimensions. By what means can one create a dynamic interaction between real dimensions and apparent size? That is the question that drives Wolfram Ullrich.
___ Astonishingly, horizontal rows of polyhedrons and vertical stacks of towers produce the appearance of the gigantic when their components grow not larger, but smaller from left to right or bottom to top, respectively. Part of the secret is stepwise reducing and shortening, rather than maximizing. The visual elements taper to a point and cause the viewers to imagine the form extending far beyond its inherent boundaries. Thus once again, the work cannot get by without its viewers if it is to achieve greatness.
___ The towers that reach skywards in Babylonian fashion are characterized by the monumental. Yet they do not produce this impression by deliberately staging untreated edges – the most essential feature of the colourful polyhedrons. Instead, a technique from the folded works is reactivated, namely covering the entire diagonal plane with monochrome colour. This time, however, Wolfram Ullrich does not apply additional varnish to the works. The apparent differences in colour result solely from the incidence of light. The purely monochrome quality underscores the solidity of the works, and this in turn is emphasized especially in those pieces that are not painted but rather have a rusty surface. This product of corrosion had vanished from Wolfram Ullrich’s oeuvre for twenty years. Yet nothing is ever lost entirely. Now the rust is emphasized once again after the cuts of the early period – in a new form of representation and with rediscovered significance.

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Text: Theres Rohde