Christian Moeller: Open Encounters: Public Art - Relief, Sculpture, Installation (2024) was released on October 15, 2024, and documents a series of large-scale installation artworks by the German artist, which were created between 2004-2023. The works included in the publication are largely situated in the United States, contextualised by the artist’s move away from architecture and his desire to develop installations in public spaces in dialogue with their surrounding areas. Open Encounters is principally authored by Moeller, who is professor emeritus, UCLA since his retirement from the University of California in Summer 2024, where he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Design Media Arts. The book begins with an introduction by Jan Tumlir, an independent art writer and curator and faculty member of the Fine Art and Humanities and Sciences departments at ArtCenter College of Design, California. It also includes contributions by Cath Brunner, former director of public art at 4Culture and Harriet F. Senie, professor emerita of art history at the City College of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Every work in this book is sensitively adapted to its site and honours the communities it serves, although never in a too-ceremonious manner. – Jan Tumlir, independent art writer and curator and faculty member at ArtCenter College of Design, California

The book is published by Lars Müller Publishers and begins with Tumlir’s essay on Moeller’s career and contextualising public art practice. As Tumlir puts it, “Unlike the art that appears in art galleries, works of public art must always contend with their context, the specific nature of their site. Sites of public art are, first of all, public but, more importantly, these are generally frequented for reasons other than looking at art.” He explains that there is an ever-present risk for public art, in that its potential audience may not notice the work. Conversely, people may find that a public artwork commands too much attention and regard it as a “sore thumb”. Tumlir believes that Moeller has spent his career perfecting the delicate equation between his work’s ability to stand out and fit in with its surroundings.

True to Tumlir’s words, Open Encounters includes several large sculpture works that stand out from the sites they are installed in, as they are typically quite tall and have bulbous shapes, at odds with the anodyne buildings or landscapes that surround them. Simultaneously, however, they sport a rather understated colour palette, wherever Moeller has used many colours. MetroGnome (2015), Bobble (2017), Trio (2018) and Sentia (2023) come to mind. The installation artist is consistent in his choice of palette, favouring subdued oranges and blues with a smattering of darker blues and reds. Tumlir explains that “every work in this book is sensitively adapted to its site and honours the communities it serves, although never in a too-ceremonious manner". He sees Moeller’s public installations as sites for communities to convene. A good example of this is DOTS (2021), which was created as a “canvas” covering the front and side of The Henry, a student housing building built in affiliation with The University of Tampa in Florida. DOTS—which is inspired by an abacus—is probably Moeller’s most colourful work and speaks to the liveliness of a college dorm.

Tumlir also highlights a sense of playfulness in Moeller’s installation art, mentioning that Trio and Sentia in particular are reminiscent of toys. Both of these works contain swivelling joints in their midsections, allowing their long necks to swing back and forth, similar to the wind-up toy birds that children play with. Again, these works are contextualised by their locations: Tumlir tells us that Trio is located in oil-rich Calgary, Canada, and to a resident of the city, its length and motion may evoke the image of an oil derrick. Sentia is placed outside the Susanne B. Wilson Women and Children’s Center at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in California, which is primarily a childbirth clinic. Additionally, as Tumlir mentions, its frame is similar to Trio, however its belly is fuller, creating an association with pregnancy.

Harriet F. Senie’s essay Christian Moeller’s Public Art: “The Right Dose of Interruption” explains that Moeller, who trained as an engineer and architect in Germany, has a knack for creating large scale installations that are structurally complicated yet do not seem to be so. She also mentions that one way of measuring the effectiveness of an artwork in a public space is to imagine its site without it and that each and every one of Moeller’s sites would appear banal without his interventions. These deceptively simple artworks provide moments of pause and elicit joy from audiences on their daily commute, serving a simple purpose that requires a delicate balancing act between visibility and discretion and physical simplicity and mechanical complexity. To quote the artist from Senie’s essay, his public art has just “the right dose of interruption”.

‘Christian Moeller: Open Encounters: Public Art - Relief, Sculpture, Installation’ (2024) was published by Lars Müller Publishers on October 15, 2024.