In terms of its industrial history, aluminium is a young metal that from the beginning has inspired artists to use it in a creative and imaginative manner. Outstanding protagonists of the artistic use of aluminium in their works are the artist couple Heike Rose and Bernd W. Schmidt-Pfeil, who live in Bavaria. Heike Rose creates aluminium pictures and installation artworks and her husband, Bernd W. Schmidt-Pfeil, is well known for his photorealistic life-size sculptures.

The husband and wife team has patented a special casting process for its works. “We cast all of our sculptures in a high-silicon aluminium alloy using our patented metal casting process. This process enables us to produce all of the structures in the artworks down to the finest detail. All of the sculptures and artworks are life-size,” explains Bernd W. Schmidt-Pfeil. Some of the sculptures are coloured using acrylic paint to create the ‘photorealistic’ effect. Smaller items are also cast in an aluminium-silicon alloy using the above-mentioned casting process. For example, a handbag or a gym shoe, which are a form of 21st century vanitas in three dimensions. “Paradoxically, short-lived objects are cast here in an aluminium-silicon alloy and thus preserved for eternity,” says Bernd W. Schmidt-Pfeil.

Heike Rose prepares the motifs for her reliefs from aluminium plate using plasma cutting equipment and these are then joined together using TIG welding. The pictures depict monumentally composed, imaginary female portraits that appear to be larger-than-life in their sensuousness and represent figures of thought relating to cultural and social standardisation. She also casts the items for her installation artworks in an aluminium-aluminium alloy. Heike Rose colours some of her cast items photorealistically and presents them in installation artworks, others can be seen on their own.

The aluminium pictures and aluminium sculptures by Heike Rose and Bernd W. Schmidt-Pfeil will be on show at a special exhibition at ALUMINIUM 2010 in Essen.