Fakewhale in Dialogue with Huber Huber

Fakewhale: How do you approach the balance between conveying your message and allowing for open interpretation in your work, especially when dealing with complex issues like morality and sustainability?

Huber Huber: In our work, we try to keep the interpretation very open.

We often show the boundaries between “good” and “bad” – especially at the tipping point. We also ask questions with our work and do not condemn. We are aware that we ourselves are among the winners in this world and contribute a great deal to the disaster, and we always try to communicate this clearly.

Of course, we also try to live as socially and sustainably as possible in our everyday lives.

Fakewhale: Your studio work often involves extensive research and conversations with experts. Can you share how this process informs and influences your final creations? How do you choose the materials for your works, and how do these materials contribute to the message you want to convey?

Huber Huber: Our work can be described as conceptual. First, there are topics that concern us and also fit into our current work. We discuss these topics in pairs; at this stage, we begin to research and explore them, and in a further step, we look at possible realizations. In this phase, it soon becomes clear which media we want to use for the realization.

These materials can be very diverse, from meteorites to synthetic fragrances.

We then begin to implement the concept. This phase can be described as experimental throughout.

Fakewhale: We find your experimental approach and the long time dedicated to research and experimentation in the studio fascinating. Can you describe, especially in your recent works, an example of how an idea develops from the initial concept to the final realization?

Huber Huber: We can briefly describe how the work “Eisbär’n müssen nie weinen” (Polar Bears Never Need to Cry) came about. We wanted to create a piece on the subject of global warming and melting ice that could be displayed outside for a summer. It was to be an icicle that melts, with the drops reminiscent of tears.

We have been dealing with the topic of global warming for some time now and have read various reports and books, especially about the melting of the poles. We attended lectures and spoke to experts. It is incredibly exciting but also frightening to delve into these complex interrelationships. We then try to transform this knowledge back into as simple a “picture” as possible.

For this project, we envisioned a staging that was as sculptural as possible. It soon became clear that a melting icicle should be at the center of the sculpture. We sketched different versions of the sculpture. In the end, we decided on a very formal and transparent version consisting of a 180-centimeter-high Plexiglas box in which a mighty icicle made of glass hangs. Water continuously drips from this, collected at the bottom and pumped back up again using a water pump.
Based on this preliminary work, we contacted various glass companies. The small glassblowing company Niesenglass produced a sample and finally the large icicle. An acrylic glass company built the box according to our plans. The biggest challenge was developing a system that would pump the water back up and allow the icicle to drip continuously. We received support from our father, a mechanical engineer, who helped us with technical questions and setting up exhibitions. The biggest difficulty was finding a small, quiet, yet powerful pump. Additionally, the pump sequence had to be timed extremely precisely. This process was very nerve-wracking and time-consuming, but ultimately successful. This work won us the grant from the Canton of Zurich in 2023. The title of the installation “Eisbär’n müssen nie weinen” is a reference to the well-known song by the band Grauzone, which addressed the consequences of industrialization and globalization back in the 1980s.

The seemingly melting icicle, which is not getting any smaller, is constantly weeping tears—only polar bears never have to cry.