Statement

In both my painting and photography, I explore existential themes revolving around the relationship between man and nature. In addition to abstract landscapes on dark canvases, I paint on reflective sheets of aluminum that make natural phenomena appear powerful and immaterial at the same time. The sublime of today, writes Nicolas Bourriaud, is the feeling of losing control over the planet. In this sense, my depictions of nature do not provide a stage for human activity. They contain no division into foreground and background and no perspective that guides the view into the distance. Here, individual phenomena of nature itself (such as clouds, water, light, and rain) become the protagonists of the painting and, as such, cover the entire surface. Not least, due to the reflections from the metal, the viewer seems to be in the midst of something. Something that cannot be objectified and controlled and that will force us humans to see ourselves as part of a greater system.

The photography works also focus on single elements of the environment, but mostly a microcosm, like flies, moths, or the shimmering skins of fish. These motifs are captured with a high-resolution camera that can „see“ more than the human eye. By printing these macro-shots in large formats, details that usually get overlooked or can‘t be recognized become visible. They open up an entire cosmos, but a closer look reveals man‘s intervention. In trying to expand the boundaries of a conventional presentation of photography, I print on various materials, like acrylic glass or raw aluminum plates, depending on the concept and content of the photograph. By using a UV printing process, which prints the brightest parts of a picture colorless, it is possible to truly integrate a part of the motif, like transparency or reflection, into the picture.

Throughout the last number of years, and given the dangers and transformations posed by advancing climate change, I have been asking myself these questions: In what way have natural forces been depicted in the history of painting? Are they the stage for or the protagonists of the pictured event? What aesthetics can be found for the depiction of nature in the Anthropocene (if, say, one does not want to address climate change by depicting devastated landscapes)? Can landscape painting today still depict the sublime? And, most importantly, how can nature, of which we are a part, be captured in the image in a way that the traditional view of a dichotomy of nature and culture must be abandoned?