Text by Lars Fischedick January 2017
It was in June last year in Berlin. I was sitting in a Café in Mitte and watched people passing by. I observed something in a face…can’t remember if it was a man or woman. Also I can’t describe it as a picture, what I saw. It was a deeper image…on a deeper level. Almost like an inner face…an inner surface, like a second skin. This skin was closed. I saw it with my belly.
And then I saw that ‘closed’ layer in a few other people.
I asked myself if I projected this onto them or if it was ‘real’.
It was like a closed wall. I recognized this closed layer from my own mother.
Close it off, sweep it under the carpet, a frock over it and a vase with pretty flowers on top.
That’s why it resonates with me and I see it. I can only see it because I understand it. If I wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t see.
It’s like a hidden shadow. A shadow that is hidden behind a light which doesn’t shine.
When I got back into my studio in Cape Town I found those 4 wooden boards waiting under the table. They have been waiting there for almost 3 years.
I took an axe…one of those long handle axes…and thought: What an appropriate tool for a German to draw with…and started cutting.
It was a purely intuitive process.
I started very gentle, almost timidly, with the first board. After I warmed up the cutting and chopping started to become easier. It exhilarated and I accelerated. The piece burst into 2 pieces. It was enough. The second and the third I went even deeper…each time right through. While I was penetrating through the third piece it struck me. I opened something…in German I would say…I habe etwas durchdrungen. The force and desire to cut through those pieces of wood was coming from deep down…went through me and right through the material. That’s why I call them Durchdringungen. I recognized and could relate to this layer because I have it within me. I didn’t have to go through the fourth piece anymore. It started flowing.
The only way to show this shadow is through my own shadow.
I protect the flame. And I am carrying the torch further.
I acknowledge the past, try to see it…try to recognize it.
I open my wound, I show my wound. Something starts flowing. My creative energy flows through me and out of me…it purges out of me. Everything is flowing.
I see my work as an expansion of the very space they are within.
The spatial effect stretches into another space. It carries one into another dimension. I believe that all art should do that. I do it very direct with geometric space constructions. It’s like a dream world I am building…a spiritual reality. I can see it…but maybe it’s an illusion…or something else. It seems as if…but then it is different…stays always different. A realistic illusion.
You can see it if you like but you don’t have to.
When is a piece finished? I can’t really tell. It is out of my control.
I work and see. Sometimes it happens fast. But it may take a long time too.
Obviously there is first the visual aspect, and my perfectionism. I try to control it but have to learn over and over again that there is something happening on the side, all by itself. I can’t see it, it is hidden from my eyes…not visual. But I can feel it very clear. It is like an object that comes to life. All of a sudden it is alive. Then I know that most of the work has been done.
80 Cuts And No Wound Acrylic on wood, 244x122cm
This work is about the space between…the liminal space.
When I start a journey and I have left the place of origin but I haven’t arrived yet. It’s not a lost space…rather a weightless space. No above and below…nor left or right. No time. Nowhere and everywhere. Hard to describe…rather feel.
Durchdringung 1 Carved and burned wood, Perspex, 65x71cm
Durchdringung 2 Carved and burned wood, Perspex, 65x71cm
Durchdringung 3 Carved and burned wood, Perspex, 65x71cm
Durchdringung 4 Carved and burned wood, Perspex, 65x71cm
Das Schwarze Schaf Und Der Medizinmann 1 Acrylic on wood, 63x63cm (Diptych)
Das Schwarze Schaf Und Der Medizinmann 2 Acrylic on wood, 63x63cm (Diptych)
These two works belong together. They entail my explorations into light and shadow as well as under my skin. They form part of a series I call Durchdringungen. There is a unifying force behind every polar duality. This force initiates the breathing between the 2 opponents.
Konversation Im Raum Acrylic and burned wood, Perspex, 86x34cm
The confrontation of two opponents explored by intuition. There is far more exchanged within a conversation than words. Even greater is the sound and the feeling. The true conversation happens on another level.
Nadir Carved and burned wood, 123x123cm
Philosophically this work belongs to the Above and Below series but visually it belongs to the Durchdringungen. But it goes even deeper…right down to the lowest possible point. It’s like an anti-pole. But it anchors me.
Streaks Carved and burned wood, 63x63cm
A close-up of my inner flow.
My German Roots Carved and burned wood, 63x63cm
Whatever I do, wherever I go, I can’t escape my germanness.
Pedestal For A Falling Angel Acrylic on wood, 154x126cm
This work belongs into the Geometric series. Starting off at the wall surface I explore more and more the space all around. I reach into the space. And this reaching out forms a geometric element which invites a non-being to rest on. Not for us, but for something else. To me it seems to be impossible to stand on this pedestal, but if gravity is vanished it all changes. I like that idea.
I take off with both feet firm on the ground. My eyes look straight forward and nothing holds me back.
References: Josef Beuys Schütze die Flamme
Paul Celan Todesfuge
Anselm Kiefer Remembering the Future