My artistic
works are a reflection on the nature of
image, its structure, its material, its energetic quality. As an artist,
I'm less interested in the canon of art history, but in what might be behind
the horizon in my expeditions: the hybrid, the paradox, the undefinable.
My artistic work is applied
systems theory. I am changing the parameters of a semi-open system,
balancing between autopoietic processes, arbitrary interventions and exactly
planned procedures. The
study of nature as a complex system of physical and chemical processes -
infiltrating, cracking, tearing, folding, compressing, dissolving ... - forms
an important basis for most of my works. My special attention is given to the tensions and the undertow between the circular life cycles of
nature (grow, proliferate, transform, die off) on the one hand and the linear time of cultural history and
civilisation on the other hand: the phenomenology of sociodynamic processes
and obsolete artefacts and relics of everyday culture (eg. diagrams, maps,
geodata) are essential starting points, sources and inspirations
of my artistic work.
Fragments and relics have a special fascination: the deficit, the absence,
the gaps; they give the void a special presence, make it real. The void emerges
as the vanished, the lost, the forgotten, the destroyed and forms a
no man's land, an intermediate world as an opponent of the material, the
visible, the audible, the experienceable.
My art is based
on the the interplay of fragmentation and
synthesis, dematerialization and
re-materialization and the dualism of materiality and immateriality. My
main interest is to explore where the limits of coherence of autonomous images
lie and where their decomposition begins. How much heterogeneity does an image
tolerate in order to still be perceived as a unity? How much heterogeneity does
a picture need to develop a vital tension or an immersive atmosphere?
A basic compositional
principle of The Series is the fold or folding. To fold over means
to reverse front and back, to evert inside and out. The fold is an infinite
principle that leads all ideas of limitation to absurdity, an all-over that is
not bound to aggregate states and therefore can move beyond the visible. It’s
goal is not growth but differentiation. It is a kind of „living machine“ (as the philosopher Gilles Deleuze
says) that hinges
together movement, space, matter and time, interpreting the resistance of
matter as texture, and that at the same time splits and expands, reveals and
conceals.
An important
element of my artistic work is the time
factor, which inscribes itself into the work in various ways. The genesis
of my works always takes place over very long periods of time, interrupted by
long breaks. These interruptions lead to new perspectives,
considerations and implementation concepts, but also to the use of new
technologies.
The machines and apparatus involved in the
production of my images inscribe their own traces of time and rhythms. Their specific use shapes all image
parameters and helps me to counteract the vagueness of physical matter with the
utmost precision.
Sound and image are different states of aggregation. I try to shape the picture elements
as if they were sound - visual sound. Most of my sound art works are studies
for The Series. Sound can shake, penetrate and
overcome physical matter. What interests me most about sound is the coincidence
of radical expansion beyond the visual horizon of perception and high
volatility. Sound is the dark matter of
visual art.
The origin of my Series-Works takes place in
three phases - similar to the metamorphosis of a butterfly
(caterpillar-pup-insect):
In the Experimental
Phase I work with different types of paper, paper pulp, pigments and
dyes as well as chemical substances such as water, sodium silicate, acids,
salts and synthetic polymers. I consider my painting as creating structures directly with
matter, compressing and expanding, inserting and dissolving, linking and
positioning. After
long lasting and often radical structuring and processing operations (with a variety of tools and
machines such as shredders, centrifuges, syringes, pipettes, sometimes even over many years) under often
laboratory-like working conditions, usually small-format intermediate results
develop.
In the
Numerical Phase,
these intermediate results are digitized, that is, dematerialized, transformed
into an aggregate state beyond physical materiality. Dust, particles, detachments, kinks and cracks are
also integrated as an autopoietic (self-organizational) system component. In the numerical phase, the vagueness of the
impulsive and intuitive intermediate results is counteracted by algorithmic
accuracy. In the state of numerical liquefaction structures are developed,
details highlighted, nuances enhanced, redundancies and disturbances removed,
positionings corrected and finally the composition is fixed.
In the
final
Phase of Re-Materialization, the finished image file is
converted back to a physical image object. This is done by using UV inkjet
printers on aluminum dibond and with computer-controlled milling.