Parallel realities

Abstract

I am interested in the after-life of machine parts, their existence after functionalism, their motionlessness, their being awkwardly out. of place and, above all, the chaotic accumulation of fragments in the junkyard, which seems to mock the hierarchical order within which they once functioned. What if these parts started moving again, not according to logical assembly plans but according to the random order they lie about in the junkyard? What would it be like if these fragments formed new machines, animated by internal forces or by residual energy from their previous use? They would be doing what. I imagine being every technician’s nightmare: The established order collapses and is replaced by unpredictable chaos. For me, this scenario is the stimulant for my art, the incentive to fix these situations into an image. When I work with found junk parts, they serve as outside referents of which I make numerous studies. These drawings not only transform the object but also help generate fresh ideas and explore pictorial possibilities. I then transfer the drawings onto big canvases. Once enlarged, the forms develop a dynamic on their own and I often rely on this element of chance to produce unplanned changes in shapes and spatial relationships. When I finally paint these compositions I have arrived at a reality that runs somewhat parallel to the one I had started out from.