BACKGROUNDS OF THE “Ikonen ohne Namen”-Series: 

To trace the influences, that led to this series of paintings, I have to go back in time.In fact it’s a convergence of different “threads”:

Way back in the eighties I already was fascinated by the upcoming pixelation of media images to shield or banish. I even collected clippings of them for future use.

At the same time there was this heavy media coverage of the famine in East-Africa with haunting images, which were branded into my memory- and still are.

Shortly afterwards I moved to South-America into a rural, sort of basic, mostly selfsufficient life. Close to nature, without tapwater and electricity and far away from western media and most of the world news. It was there that I experienced the vast gap between the western view on developing countries and the actual everyday life there.

Coming back to Europe- some 16 years later- the flow of media images had accelerated fundamentally, their quantity exploded. Finding no more media coverage about Famine in Africa, I thought it was over. But when I finally searched a photo of this famine in the eighties, that still lingered in my mind, I found out, that the situation stayed the same only no longer visible in the media. And I was shocked by my misconception and about the pace at which images are washed away in the flood of new images nowadays.

I didn't find the photo I was searching for, but this quest was the trigger for me to bring all those experiences and reflections together, what finally resulted in this series.

Block "Fluss" (ambigous meaning  river or flow):

Ikonen ohne Namen XVI

(icons without names)
 

Acrylic on Canvas
50 x 70 cm
2022

PAPYRUS SERIES
Beside clay tablets and animal skins (parchment) as writing media, the first percursors of paper were used in Egypt 
3000 years ago. They were made from glued fibres of the papyrus plant, which also gave the material its name.
With my papyrus series, I go back to the beginnings of paper as a material and experiment with its production, leaving the plant material visible and playing with shapes, colours and textures.

Block "Grund" (Ground):

Papyrus 27

Plantpaper on cardboard
21 x 29 cm 
2024

Block "Grund" (Ground):

Papyrus 32

Plantpaper on cardboard
21 x 29 cm 
2024

Block "Sub Rosa":

Untitled  
Chlorine Bleach 
on black Cardboard

14,8 x 21 cm

2022

 

The works belong to my work-complex „Sub Rosa“. The rose, and especially the white rose, has an ancient history as a symbol of secrecy. On the confessionals in christian churches was often a carved rose. Sub rosa (for "under the rose") denotes secrecy or confidentiality.
 

Block "Grund" (Ground):
Fading life VI

Acrylic on canvas
50 x 40 cm
2021

Lau Banded Iguana / Kurzkamm-Leguan
Fiji (Lau Islans)
IUCN Status: EN (-dangered)
Yellow shading screen:
Habitat loss (Various causes)

Block "Fluss" (ambigous meaning river or flow):
 Endloses Fluidum (endless fluid) I 

 (series of 37 -ongoing)

watercolor and felt pen on paper 

24 x 32 cm
2021

One of my inspirations is the journey back to the origins of words and objects. These journeys into the past, which lead me through so many countries and cultures, show me the amazing depth and complexity of the everyday present „ordinary“, which seldom is as ordinary as it seems on first glance.

On those journeys I learn as well how the meaning of words can change over time, how fluid a language is. To experience these changes is often an eye-opener and very enriching.

In this series, I want to depict the fluidity of language visually. Etymological studies of the origins and history of words serve as my basis for this. 

Block "Reflexion":
Negativ 2
(series of 18)
Acrylic on canvas 
18 x 24 cm

2017





This painting is part of a series about suffering and violence. Photos served as models which were changed into negatives. I choose this form, because this made it possible, to span a bridge between the individual fate and a more universal, iconic symbol for the vast number of victims.