The moment when an idea comes into mind, there is a remarkable cognitive process at highest levels of intensity within the soul of its recipient. It is the marveling fright, as Plato called it in 'Phaidros‘, where the inner soul recalls aesthetic pleasures which it unconsciously has always known. Fullfilling its ontological purpose according to the Theory of Forms, as it is the "non-physical essence of all (...) matter in the physical world". But after the neurological firework, what if there is just nothingness, which in any case doesn’t equal emptiness. It is nothingness as in John Cage’s ’Silence'. A place within the human body, secluded from all arousing passion and constant thirst for satisfaction, where the core of your soul is resting, observing, processing. Where it stoically maintains the fluctuations of daily life.
As complex life may occure, it remains to peremptory aesthetic mechanisms embedded in human perception. Besides individual factors like trauma, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, some mechanisms align in its simplicity within all humankind.
The concept behind forgottopeeloffthetape addresses them by combining a minimal, almost banal imagery with a hyperrealistic oil painting technique. I like to trigger the viewer in these neurological patterns, forcing thoughts like "So this is art?". Refusing any means and tools trying to seek the viewer's attention by merging the simplicity to one whole entity.
And in case you still can not believe your eyes: both, the black rectangular plus the tape, are painted with oil on canvas, without any physical texture. It is a display of an intriguing quote by one of the most influential modern painters, Gerhard Richter saying "Das Denken ist beim Malen das Malen", figuratively meaning: thinking is a painters most important tool.