Die Humpty-Dumpty-Maschine der totalen Zukunft (''The Humpty-Dumpty machine of the total future'') is a bronze sculpture created 2010 by

Jonathan Meese Jonathan Meese (born January 23, 1970 in Tokyo) is a German painter, sculptor, performance artist and installation artist based in Berlin and Hamburg. Meese's (often multi-media) works include paintings, collages, drawings and writing. He also d ...

, and installed at the

Alte Nationalgalerie The Alte Nationalgalerie ( ''Old National Gallery'') is a listed building on the Museum Island in the Mitte (locality), historic centre of Berlin, Germany. The gallery was built from 1862 to 1876 by the order of King Frederick William IV of Prussi ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany, during 2011–2015.

Creation

The original concept was "animal with naked woman"; the animal became a machine and the human disappeared. The work of art was first created as a geometric sketch from which a small model was developed. The next step was a large polystyrene model, which was then "ore-machined". The sculpture was cast in the

Hermann Noack Hermann Noack, or Noack Foundry (German: ''Bildgießerei Hermann Noack GmbH & Co.''), is a German art foundry in Berlin, named after its original proprietor and his three direct descendants, all with the same name, who have run the business. ...

art foundry. The employees of the bronze foundry were involved in this step to guarantee a stable basic structure on which the details could be built. The final processing of the surfaces including mechanical and chemical treatment was also carried out by the Noack specialists. According to the artist, models for his work of art were: the

Nautilus The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in t ...

Emma Emma may refer to: * Emma (given name) Film * Emma (1932 film), ''Emma'' (1932 film), a comedy-drama film by Clarence Brown * Emma (1996 theatrical film), ''Emma'' (1996 theatrical film), a film starring Gwyneth Paltrow * Emma (1996 TV film), '' ...

the steam locomotive, Lok 1414,

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film stars ...

, vehicles from

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian post-apocalyptic Action film, action film series and media franchise created by George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with ''Mad Max (film), Mad Max'', and was followed by thre ...

films, Ben Hur's chariot,

the Snow Queen "The Snow Queen" ( da, Snedronningen) is an original fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published 21 December 1844 in '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection'' (''Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samli ...

's sleigh, the

Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

's vehicle and the

time machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

. Meese characterizes his bronze object as forward-looking: "The baby spaceship flies forward only, without a rear-view mirror, without a railing and without nostalgia, great, great, great."

Reception

Gallery owner Philipp Haverkampf said that the work is a crazy mixture of time machine, spaceship and the sled of the sandman. When you look at it, you can see bizarre details such as geometric shapes, the Iron Cross and a beer bottle. According to

Der Tagesspiegel ''Der Tagesspiegel'' (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington D.C. and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, s ...

, the term 'Humpty Dumpty' in the title refers to the talking egg in

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

's children's book

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

. In the Colonnades Courtyard in front of the Alte Nationalgalerie, the motley flying machine made of pieces as found at flea markets seems like a foreign body between the well-proportioned statues of classical sculpture schools. Meese's sculpture is part of the educational

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

of 100 works in the categories of film/video, music, literature, architecture, and art which the editorial team of

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

compiled from readers' letters in the fall of 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Die Humpty-Dumpty-Maschine der totalen Zukunft 2010 establishments in Germany 2010 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Germany Outdoor sculptures in Berlin Sculptures in the Alte Nationalgalerie

Creation

Reception

See also

References

External links