FRAGMETS FROM
A FUTURE PAST
Whoever creates a series creates fragments.
The individual pieces of work may be complete, but the overall project is not. The drawings for the Book of Demons as fragments, be considered fragments, splinters, or remnants.
We see elements that illustrate a supposed past. The aged paper shows us a surreal world with fable creatures, demons, stories, and symbols from whatever kind of “Middle Ages”. This view is not backward-looking or historicizing, but rather comments on our preoccupation with our present, which is shaped by crises. In which there are no simple solutions for the “now”. An exhibition and installation shown in April 2023 refer to this with an irritated look at a supposed yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The setting is the Brutal Gallery in the Ihme Center, Hannover, in the midst of the urban neglect of a disused shopping mall. The exhibition reacts to the concrete brutalism of the complex of buildings that rises out of the urban landscape like a castle, eight times larger than originally planned. A symbol for failed visions of the 60s. Unloved by the population, valued by the RAF as a conspiratorial place to live, once a temple of consumption, now bankrupt, failed utopias are close together here.
The works shown belong mainly to the Book of Demons, they come
from the second volume of the series. The smaller format is partly supported by designed sheet metal frames. content the works move in the depiction of mythical creatures, youth memories, symbolism, and demons. In the exhibition, these drawn works will be wall paintings, ceramics, and two Works on canvas set aside. They all deal with the supposed here and now, questioning this by the works outwardly pretending to come from a bygone era. But what is the future and what is the past?“The past bites the tail of everything in the future.”
Friedrich Nietzsche.
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A FUTURE PAST
Whoever creates a series creates fragments.
The individual pieces of work may be complete, but the overall project is not. The drawings for the Book of Demons as fragments, be considered fragments, splinters, or remnants.
We see elements that illustrate a supposed past. The aged paper shows us a surreal world with fable creatures, demons, stories, and symbols from whatever kind of “Middle Ages”. This view is not backward-looking or historicizing, but rather comments on our preoccupation with our present, which is shaped by crises. In which there are no simple solutions for the “now”. An exhibition and installation shown in April 2023 refer to this with an irritated look at a supposed yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The setting is the Brutal Gallery in the Ihme Center, Hannover, in the midst of the urban neglect of a disused shopping mall. The exhibition reacts to the concrete brutalism of the complex of buildings that rises out of the urban landscape like a castle, eight times larger than originally planned. A symbol for failed visions of the 60s. Unloved by the population, valued by the RAF as a conspiratorial place to live, once a temple of consumption, now bankrupt, failed utopias are close together here.
The works shown belong mainly to the Book of Demons, they come
from the second volume of the series. The smaller format is partly supported by designed sheet metal frames. content the works move in the depiction of mythical creatures, youth memories, symbolism, and demons. In the exhibition, these drawn works will be wall paintings, ceramics, and two Works on canvas set aside. They all deal with the supposed here and now, questioning this by the works outwardly pretending to come from a bygone era. But what is the future and what is the past?“The past bites the tail of everything in the future.”
Friedrich Nietzsche.
BUCH DER DÄMONEN
(Book of Demons)
No preliminary drawing with pencil. No grid to determine proportions.
No erasing. No overpainting. The first raw dash counts and specifies the further lines that then lead to the picture. Often not knowing what is emerging, sometimes an idea or hunch, the picture is created in a process of moving from line to line.
The structure and technical application of the miniature paintings found in the Iranian Shahnameh to folk traditions and legends have influenced this series of works significantly, in addition to influence from the Prinzhorn Collection (Heidelberg). The placement of the typeface was studied. A fantasy typeface made up of cryptic characters and artistically playful flourishes was devised, which, however, is not"written" from right to left. The old, fantastic representations are
models and inspiration, they are supplemented and expanded by
modern elements and influences and thus also bring a fine humorous aspect to the drawings.
The content and the origin of these signs and ornaments remain mysterious and uninterpretable for the artist and viewer. They seem to have been adapted from foreign cultures and times. Not really legible, they do not reveal their meaning and thus make it necessary to study the picture more intensively. The stubborn refusal of a document provokes and inspires.
These drawings are deliberately patinated, placed in tea and coffee, then baked and seared. Adding to the distressed paper is the vibrant color of crayons that have been burned out and faded with the help of a hairdryer. All should seem as if these “old papers” had already seen a lot of light and time. Like the imagery, the patina should tell a story to underscore it. This shall lead us to something timeless. The works are meant to seem frayed and blotchy as if many had already tried to decipher the content of these drawings. As if they had bee passed back and forth from questioner to questioner.
(Book of Demons)
No preliminary drawing with pencil. No grid to determine proportions.
No erasing. No overpainting. The first raw dash counts and specifies the further lines that then lead to the picture. Often not knowing what is emerging, sometimes an idea or hunch, the picture is created in a process of moving from line to line.
The structure and technical application of the miniature paintings found in the Iranian Shahnameh to folk traditions and legends have influenced this series of works significantly, in addition to influence from the Prinzhorn Collection (Heidelberg). The placement of the typeface was studied. A fantasy typeface made up of cryptic characters and artistically playful flourishes was devised, which, however, is not"written" from right to left. The old, fantastic representations are
models and inspiration, they are supplemented and expanded by
modern elements and influences and thus also bring a fine humorous aspect to the drawings.
The content and the origin of these signs and ornaments remain mysterious and uninterpretable for the artist and viewer. They seem to have been adapted from foreign cultures and times. Not really legible, they do not reveal their meaning and thus make it necessary to study the picture more intensively. The stubborn refusal of a document provokes and inspires.
These drawings are deliberately patinated, placed in tea and coffee, then baked and seared. Adding to the distressed paper is the vibrant color of crayons that have been burned out and faded with the help of a hairdryer. All should seem as if these “old papers” had already seen a lot of light and time. Like the imagery, the patina should tell a story to underscore it. This shall lead us to something timeless. The works are meant to seem frayed and blotchy as if many had already tried to decipher the content of these drawings. As if they had bee passed back and forth from questioner to questioner.
