In 1986, when changing from working mostly with ceramics to welded metal, Almuth Tebbenhoff extended her visual vocabulary. New possibilities arose in the sharpness and precision of images she produced, an increased colour range, and the breadth of scale on which she was able to work. Having worked for at least ten years almost entirely in clay, Tebbenhoff was inevitably interested in the malleable qualities of the material, in matter and its origins as well as in its practical application. With welded steel she could take her ideas further and began to produce sculptures which referred both to the universe and to the inner self. Charts of the night sky became, for her, the source of interstellar explorations undertaken in parallel with investigations into her own creativity through meditation and Yoga. The resulting sculptures were virtual explosions of light, of matter, of colour.

When developing her galactic themes through a long series of wall sculptures, Tebbenhoff eventually recognised a need to return to full three-dimensional expression. Beam is an early example of her intent. The concept in this piece is deceptively simple. What appears to be a ray of light falling through the branches of a tree, penetrates the atmosphere and the earth. The pool of golden light within the ground, based on the profile of the constellation of Phoenix, gives the impression that a light source is here and makes nonsense of the perspective Tebbenhoff has drawn with her stainless steel beam. Beam is endowed in equal measure with logic and contradiction, and this mischief gives the sculpture a twist in the tail.