Couple

Description

Couple is one early example of the local sculptor Hans Lembrecht Madsen’s works for the public space. Two long, black, organic shapes sway elegantly on steel pipes fastened into a large boulder. One shape is slightly taller than the other, yet the openings in them are precisely juxtaposed, as it sometimes happens for couples.

Couple leaves room for multiple interpretations, given that the sculpture was inspired by a very specific phenomenon of nature: beans in a pod. “If you open a bean pod, you find the beans inside developing across from each other, nestled snugly side by side. That was actually the basic image I had in working with this sculpture,” the artist once explained.

Hans Lembrecht Madsen, a self-taught sculptor, has since made his mark with several public commissions in the South Jutland region. He is best known for his double work in the traffic circles at motorway exit for Aabenraa and Rødekro: Lifting together and Together we break through, with the official English title Way-Out, Transformation I–II. Other of his sculptures can be viewed near Aabenraa train station, now the art venue BaneGården; on Torvegade street in Padborg; and at the Kongehøjskolen school in Aabenraa.