Frank Kunert (b.1963), a German artist, is the master of his own miniature topsy-turvy world. That’s also the title of a book published in 2008, Verkehrte Welt (Hatje Cantz) edited by Thilo von Debschitz.
Kunert creates beautifully absurd scale models with a twist. “Near the Autobahn” is an apartment building where an Autobahn tunnel runs through the apartments. “Children” is a slide atop a high wall that wisks the player onto a concrete roadway. “Onwards and Upwards” is a toll road that goes up at a 180 degree incline. “Tennis-Halfpipe” is a tennis court as skateboard track. And “Adventure Pool Complex” is a glass-enclosed diving pool, only the pool is a large toilet. There are many more.
“For me,” says Kunert, “architecture is a metaphor of the human condition. It is an indicator of the vulnerability of human existence.” He adds about his precisely detailed reductive worlds, “I want to unite profound thought with ease and humor. Above all, it is the sense of the absurd in everyday life and the people behind it that interest me.”
He has transformed his “interest” into incredible small worlds that must be seen to be appreciated and must be meditated upon to be seen. And here’s a short film.
