The bronze column Säule (Column, 2018) is part of a series of columns made of compression-molded vinyl records that the artist began in 2006. He found the record bowls at a Berlin flea market in 2003. The repetition of forms and their potentially infinite expansion are a clear reference to Constantin Brâncuși’s Endless Columns, created almost 100 years earlier. In his columns, Hildebrandt uses the same principle of repetition, connecting it to the analog recording materials that form the backdrop of his work.
Formally inspired by Minimalism and Abstract Expressions, Hildebrandt’s work draws on a wide range of literary, cinematic, musical, and architectural sources to evoke collective and personal memories. The German artist mainly works with analog sound storage mediums. In the late 1990s, he started using audio cassette tapes in his paintings before turning to VHS tapes and vinyl records in the 2000s.
The choice of medium reflects Hildebrandt’s profound love of music, which is an integral part of his creative process. Yet his works never produce a sound. Instead, sound and lyrics are embedded in the materials themselves, revealed through titles that only partially inform us about their nature.