Saint R. (2012 – 2013)

Train tracks going through a city are at the same time part of the city and not part of the city: a city is build for people, but you can not live there, you are not even allowed there. Same goes for high ways, sub-way tunnels and garbage dumps. I sometimes use these places as symbols for the border lands of our society.

A border separates and also creates order: these people belong over there and we live over here, and -according to some-that is how it is supposed to be. Certain thinkers have pointed out that Europe has the tendency to create places where that what does not fit in society will be banished to, like the terminally ill, the mentally unstable, the disabled, those with grotesque appearances and the criminal minds. These are the places where that what is deemed unclean, unholy, non-rational and unacceptable is expelled to, surrounded by a set of boundaries of their own.

Most of the times people are put there against their will. But there are also people who choose to step outside of the grandeur Europe/the western world has to offer, and they try to create their own place of refuge with their own rules.

Expo 2012

Expo – Opening 15th of October 2012 -19:00 hours

I have an exhibition starting on monday the 15th of October until monday 21st of October in a bar called ‘The Great Heisenberg’ in Neuölln, Berlin – opening starts at 19:00. I will show mostly new works and one of them will be donated to the Kreutzigerstrasse during an event at a later time. Music by the PrunX acoustic + suprise guests session :-)

I’m not a photographer per-se, but I do take photos all the time and use the resulting material and a bunch of digital tools to create art that is inspired by classical topics and themes. One of the works I will show is the last in a series of modern icons I have been working on for almost 10 years. It is the picture of an ex-junky who has since died after a robbery. I can still find him in my list of facebook friends. Every year on the day he died people will tell him they miss him. If we also post our prayers on his wall, will he talk to god so he favors our wishes? In our modern society we no longer honor our outcasts as the saints they used to be in earlier times, as described in anthropological works like ‘The Golden Bough’ by sir J.G. Frazer. What used to live in churches /temples is now experienced while dancing to a thumping beat. Too bad being an outcast is just a live-style that is at its best an inspiration for our latest fashion choices. The other works I will show are also inspired by something classical: I’m trying to rediscover ornamental themes as used in wallpaper, murals and in books until not that long ago.

Opening hours are from 20.00 hours until way after midnight. The expo is part of a series of exhibitions from [MfG Berlin – Movement for Galleries]

Blumen für Appelonia

I could make a wall paper out of this, to cover a huge wall. Repeating patterns, but never the same. Maybe something for a night-club or a luxurious apartment? I can play around with it to create a pattern that seems to repeat but is never the same. The originals of these images can be used for big sized prints, without losing quality.

If anybody is interested, let me know. I should try to make lighter patterns next.

Saint Stephan the Drunk – Triptychon (2010-2012)

He was robbed and died about a year after I made the photos this triptychon was based on. He has seen the first results of my work, but never the finished project. He is still on my facebook feed. If I send him my prayers in a direct message, will he pass them on to god for me? I’m not sure I want the winged guys on either side of him to be my messengers, but maybe that is just me.

I wrote the following about the piece in 2015 for an exhibition (translated in German):

“Der heilige Stefan der Besoffene (2012/2013) ist ein Porträt von einem der vielen die der Filmriss zum Lebensentwurf gemacht haben. Sind sie Kinder der Sechziger auf der Suche nach Selbstauflösung, sind sie kranke Süchtigen oder sind sie Schamanen/Propheten in ihrem Rausch? Ist diese Symbolik ein Gespenst unserer Vergangenheit oder zeigt es eine Zukunft? Oder was gewesen ist, ebendas wird sein, und was geschehen ist, ebendas wird geschehen, und es gibt gar nichts Neues unter der Sonne.”

Size: 80 x 60 cm @300dpi
Pixelsize: 9449 px * 7087 px
Origin: Composition made with photos, some 3D