About Us | The Level

Learn More About "The Level"

The "level" refers to tools that used to align surfaces and lines in space. New spaces are created.

One source of inspiration for my work stems from my fascination with Gothic

architecture, an architecture that draws on harmonies and symbols that endures to

this day.

Another source is the symbolic language of Freemasonry, which in one line of its

tradition harks back to the mason’s guild of the Middle Ages and to cathedral

construction.

These symbolic languages developed in times when discernment and deciphering

were part of a lively communication for the creator as well as the viewer. This

communication includes transcendental content and yet relates to completely earthly

objects.

The power of these harmonies and symbols still has an effect, touching a deep level

of perception that is rarely addressed in our current day-to-day life.

I am pursuing this process of transformation from the profane to the symbolically

charged object with my works.

During the creation of my one-of-a-kind works, the "magic moment" occurs when the

profane element becomes a carrier of spiritual inspiration.

This moment cannot be grasped as such. However, by transferring it into threedimensionality,

and through looking at and actually fathoming the works, this moment

can be comprehended and experienced.

I find other inspiration in literature. The first scene in Umberto Eco's "The Foucault

Pendulum" is clearly the inspiration for the sculpture of the same name.

Or it is the materials themselves that become the inspiration?

A wooden chest becomes the source of old oak wood for the sculpture "Monsalvat"

and other works, while the long-vanished brickworks in Ribbeck still provides material

from the depths of time for the piece "Tylor." Eternally old sandstone finds a final use

in the sculpture "Axis Mundi," and the blacksmith's hammer at the center of the work

"Tubalkain" is still charged by the kinetic force of its blows on the anvil in a forge

cooled long, long ago.

And thus the viewer takes a look back in time and can continue to tell the story of the

respective pieces from a personal perspective.

Detlev Cleinow, born in Berlin in 1962, is primarily active in the fields of cultural and

social work. He learned how to work with materials and tools as a sailor, carpenter's

assistant, film and set builder, and in other crafts.