A good work of art makes you look, and keep on looking. Until you have found an answer to its enigma, one must persist in looking. That is its primary function.
My praxis is characterized by a provocative surrealistic approach of actual everyday traces that we leave behind. I integrate these banal tracks with social, political, and current issues as a paradox and thereby alienate them from their everyday life. This often leads to works that result in an unceasing questioning of viewing habits and of sculpture itself. With these works I create an alternative storyline of reality itself. It makes the viewer question everything that is part of our own presence.
The COVID-19 virus resulted in a sudden stop within society. This gave me the opportunity to find the rest and focus in my studio to work on a completely new series of work, based on a phenomenon I started to notice in the streets of Berlin. It was as if the ‘skin’ of the city started to get older and worn out. Due to the clubs, concert halls, theaters, and other venues being closed, no new events were being organized. Therefore no new posters were produced and glued on the many poster spots in the city. The existing posters started to decay, they become wrinkled, started to fade, and partly came off the wall due to the weather. I collected many of those posters and used them as my starting point for new works, in which I focused on the new abstract forms and colors that were present. By combining the found material with a monochrome painting I give new life to the existing object. I try to steer the eye of the viewer and influence the way of observing something that normally would be unnoticed and unvalued.
My work often can be read in the form of ‘what-if’ questions: What if we make new paper out of found coffee cups (In coffee we trust), what if you can turn a paint can into a confetti cannon (squeezing out a party), what if you witness a scene that tells an unknown story (some other memory). I tend to tell stories with an open end and invite the viewer to fill in the rest. Therefore, invitation and collaboration are a core part of my practice. The art creates an ongoing conversation between me, my work, and the viewer.