Jakob Grosse-Ophoff, studio portrait, 2025. An accompanying image for Free little bird. Photograph: Dan Petermann. Source: the photographer’s portfolio. Source
Two carved hands cross and beat like wings. In Free little bird, an elementary gesture brings an animal into view without concealing the mechanism that carries it. Wood and metal rods make the passage from body to machine visible. This small flight in place opens a tender, absurd gap between an impulse towards freedom and its programmed repetition.
Location
A studio presentation shared online by the artist and Museum Beelden aan Zee on 30 September 2026. His exhibition Myself and Other Planets is scheduled at Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Netherlands, from 31 October 2026 to 11 April 2027.
Artist
Born in Oldenburg in 1991, Jakob Grosse-Ophoff lives and works in Rostock, Germany. Trained in mechanical engineering, he has developed a kinetic-sculpture practice since 2019 in which simple mechanisms turn human gestures into poetic, disconcerting situations.
Sources : Museum Beelden aan Zee / Jakob Grosse-Ophoff, 30.09.2026 ; Museum Beelden aan Zee ; Jakob Grosse-Ophoff.