Skulpturenpark Köln

Only when looking very closely does one recognise that the small, idiosyncratic collection of forms sitting between the bushes and the shrubbery are made of used and exquisitely fashioned car tires. The work Rödig by the artist Isa Melsheimer (b. 1968 in Neuss, Germany) transforms these tires into animal-like creatures which bear a fleeting resemblance to a swan, or even a snail, and which could be used as flower tubs since they are filled with soil. These origins of these sculptures trace back to the childhood images of this Berlin-based artist, images of gardens from the 1960s and 1970s. In essence Rödig is such a front garden, a treasured momento resurrected from Isa Melsheimer's memory of a bygone world. Forging another quite concrete link to her past is the fact that Josef Rödig, a local man, who once used to manufacture such flower tubs, actually fabricated this work from car tires using a special cutting technique. But functionality is not Isa Melsheimer's overriding concern - quite the opposite. Indeed, flowers are notably absent, and the emphasis is placed firmly on these "recycled" tires as sculpture, on their autonomous existence and their - amusingly orchestrated - presentation.