Dirk Skreber (b. 1961)

Dramatically wrapping two cars around thick metal poles, German artist Dirk Skreber has created an extraordinary spectacle in Untitled (Crash 1) and Untitled (Crash 2). 'I wanted to go closer to the material reality of my subject. I started thinking about a simulated crash, which was staged according to my sculptural vision While making these works my concern was not at all about accidents but rather to use a massive and completely real transfer of energy as an opening door to a perspective on the flow of physical laws and metaphysical energies, loading and unloading, transforming and retransforming like batteries or spiritual bodies' (D. Skreber, reproduced at https://www.saatchigallery.co.uk/artists/dirk_skreber2_articles.htm [accessed 5th June 2013]).

Growing up in a suburban district of northern Germany, Skreber's work draws from the industrial landscape of his youth, making sculptures and paintings that explore the link between industry and art. Starting as a painter, Skreber obsessively created dystopian wastelands comprised of car crashes, bike parts flung across barren roads, and cars wrapped around poles. Finding that there was a 'curiousness in the crash paintings that wasn't satisfied (D. Skreber, reproduced at https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/10471/1/the-shape-of -things-to-come-dirkskreber, [accessed 5th June 2013]), Skreber translated his unique visions into three-dimensions, creating dynamic sculptures that have an unassailably powerful visual impact.