As a sculptor, Rita McBride (*1960 in Des Moines, US) is concerned with the mechanisms of urban fabrics and their structures of communication, frequently adopting a reduced, almost minimalist formal language. She has created several large-scale sculptures for public space, among them Mae West, one of Europe’s tallest works: a 52-metre-high, carbon fibre sculpture standing in Munich. McBride has held a chair for sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf since 2003, where she was also director from 2013 until 2017.Here in the Ruhr area, the Carbon Obelisk is a striking spatial marker; it defines an axis where there was no war before, and directs the gaze to two existing sculptures in the area: the landmark Bramme for the Ruhr Area by Richard Serra and the Schwelle by Raimund Kummer.
