“My intention through my works is to achieve a condition which is ambiguous allowing many interpretations in many directions." Georg Herold, 2005

At first glance, the lyrical figures in George Herold’s Heyday are playful in gesture, dancing and inviting the viewer to join in their exaltation. Yet, by casting skeletal, canvas-bound wooden planks in heavy bronze, the surfaces of these figures evoke an impossible visual tension between the delicate weave and stitching of the once-present fabric and the new, polished bronze shell.

While these two figures appear joyous in their flowing gesture, their broken angular surfaces suggest a dichotomy, and the viewer is left unsure as to whether these statues are in fact celebrating or fighting. Influenced by Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich’s Die Unfahigkeit zu Trauern (The Inability to Mourn, 1967) and their ideas of “creative stultification” in post-war Germany, Herold’s monumental Heyday statues maintain the isolation of Alberto Giacometti’s figure, while also dynamically engaging with each other.