Phoenix
In the past, Michael’s sculptural work focused primarily on the internal structure of the objects. In Phoenix, the artist goes one step further and entirely devotes himself to the abstracted form of the object. The sculpture is reduced to a minimal form whereby its plasticity comes to the fore. Behrens produces contrasting works by deliberate abandonment of color in the classical sense and the interplay of convex and concave surfaces in black and gold. The combination of black and gold follows an intuitive approach. Black is one of the few achromatic colors that, when illuminated on a matte surface, has limited reflective qualities. However, when bright light reflects on a shiny surface, it creates a fascinating depth and glare. The dark and the light are experienced, offering both black, the void, the absolute nothingness, darkness, sadness, death, and the opposite gold, the sun-like metal of the gods and kings.