Who or what is a creature?

The term “creature” is an auxiliary linguistic construct that defines an intermediate realm of human perception. It usually characterises someone or something which cannot be assigned to any conventional description. Creatures therefore appear where there are no clear categories. This is probably also the reason why the word has primarily negative connotations. Because what we cannot clearly name or understand often evokes unease or fear.

Etymologically, however, there is a second level of meaning to the word creature. This is because the Latin word stem “creare” can be translated as “to create” [German: “schöpfen” or “erschöpfen”], which is generally something positive – if we disregard creations such as Frankenstein. The created creature can therefore also stand for the productive and human desire to give life to something new. It is no coincidence that “creature” and “creativity” have the same root word.

The exhibition “Creatures” in the Hugo Rupf Hall of the Art Museum Heidenheim takes the two aspects of the term as an opportunity to present works by sculptors who operate precisely in this intermediate area.

The works on display encompass different techniques and materials. What they have in common, however, is that they defy clear categorisation. This is achieved above all by combining fragments of the familiar with the abstract, by taking existing elements apart and reassembling them in unusual ways and by combining individual motifs from different contexts. For example, human and animal characteristics can be mixed or the organic and the technological can be merged into a new form.

The aim of the exhibition is an aesthetic exploration of the limits of grown, overgrown physicality as well as the aesthetic experience of the creative power of visual artists, whose art gives visible and tangible form to what seems to be unnamable.

With works by:
Felix Burger, Bas de Wit, Malte Bruns, Nena Cermak, Dorothea Klug, Thomas Liu Le Lann, Daniel Nehring, Mary-Audrey Ramirez, Theresa Rothe, Agnes Questionmark

ROLAND RIEGGER PRIZE 2025

Two works by Alintschick will be presented alongside the  exhibition Creatures. The artist (born 2000 in Heidenheim an der Brenz) is currently a student at the Stuttgart Art Academy and will receive the Roland Riegger Prize 2025. The prize is aimed at young people who are at the beginning of an artistic career or aspire to a career in a cultural field.

Image above: Thomas Liu Le Lann: Nacho (Nacho wears a kiwi green PMS shirt), 2021, Dreirad, Jersey, Vinyl, printed T-Shirt made from bio-cotton, steel, wood and cotton wool, © Thomas Liu Le Lann, Foto: Jens Ziehe