encyclopedic works: a system of colours

squares of colour

which i paint earnestly, patiently, repeated

one of top of each other

colour coordinates in an intuitive grid

spontaneous at first

then more and more conscious

of the interdependance, the correlations and effects 

each colour has upon the other

constructs, towers, bridges

as if playing with building blocks 

different hues, tones and textures

my attempt to sort the infinite 

portraits of consumerism

'portraits of consumerism' started out with my urge to draw. to draw whenever possible. wherever possible. the only tool i need is a pen. scaps of paper can be found everywhere.

for example payment receipts. i never seem to run out of them. small pieces of paper of different sizes, various content and lengths. witnesses of my life as a consumer. these payment receipts tell part of my story. maybe more than i want. 

the paper of these receipts is very smooth. thermal paper. it doesn't get printed on with ink.  thermal paper gets imprinted with heat. over time, the letters and imprints will fade until the paper is plain white again. until the act of consumption is no longer visible. only the black lines of my pen will remain.

i keep searching. my black pen tracing some of the facts on these receipts. tracing, drawing, looking for myself. usually i draw my face. lines about wanting, about manipulation, about behaviour and awareness, about cause and effect, about my actions and my reaction. lots of little traces that add up to a bigger picture.

some photos from 'time being'

'time being' - a short tour

thank you. thanks to everyone who came yesterday and shared this special moment with me: it was the first time that i filled an entire gallery with my soul, and the first time in hongkong to actually say: hello here i am! 

this is a short video for all those who couldn't make it to my exhibition. 

thanks especially to kate and abid who are running the beautiful timeandspace.hk gallery. a big thank you also to lillian and betsy from winenthingshk.com for the sparkly and the perfect service. and thanks without words to my husband who gives me the inner and outer space to persue the art that is in my heart. and to my chilrden who try their best to do the same.

'time being'

'Time Being'

Time & Space presents Time Being, the first solo exhibition of German artist Liina Klauss opening on April 17 and running through to April 24.

Concerned with the visualization of time and influenced by Berlin street art, Klauss uses derelict paper and yellowing book pages as a canvas for her mixed media pieces. Through layers of slowly fading colours and ink on paper she creates a direct experience of the transience and impermanence of life.

For Klauss, the medium is as important as the painting itself: yellowed pages of an art encyclopedia make up the historical context with drawings and hues of colour representing the vibrant present. The artist combines water colours and ink with natural hand mixed paints and pigments such as clay or vegetable dyes.

Klauss intuitively uses shades of colours that are sensitively stacked into imaginary columns and correlations. This constructed network of colours and tones fade into the colour of the paper itself, leaving nothing but the subtlest trace.

As Klauss puts it: 'I'm expecting a certain sensitivity from the viewer. Even though I'm making the artwork, I'm doing nothing but pointing towards a reality that the viewer has to see and feel and experience within him or herself. Art is happening as much on the paper as it is happening through and within the viewer.'

the real thing

can you see these colours? they are brilliant in their differing hues and saturations. the closer you look the more shades are revealing. now i want you to imagine the original as this is nothing but a reproduction on your computer. this is a very reduced version of the colours on the page i got in front of me. it is 1/1000th of the original. even less. 
how can you measure infinity? we expose ourselves to this very narrow colour spectrum that computer screens and print media produce. we get used to it. we start to take this as the benchmark. but it is not and can never be. colours are infinite! there are a million shades of blues. of greens. look at a tree. look at a single leaf. i mean: really look look - your eyes will get showered with countless hues and blends and fades and shades of colours. because it's you who makes these colours. literally. in the retina of your eye. art is happening as much on the paper as it is happening through and within the viewer. so even though i may be the one to make the artwork, i'm nothing but pointing towards a reality which you have to see and feel and experience within yourself. 

burnt pebble beach red

the water colour i'm using is called 'burnt sienna'. it comes from england. the pigment comes from italy. the binder comes from goddess knows. i bought the little tube in a shop in hong kong. from a person i've never seen before. so little to relate to. i'm going to the pebble beach. the sun is warming my face. i'm finding smooth stones washed up by hundreds and hundreds of waves. some are round bricks: a deep red colour like 'burnt sienna'. i scrape them to dust the same way my children do. i pour and filter the dust and mix it with water into a paste. a warm red tone that includes my sweat, the sound of the waves and the warmth of the sun. so beautiful and intimate and part of my life. i name the colour 'burnt pebble beach red'. 

time fades

on my last visit to berlin i pick up a book that is published in 1968. the shop keeper wants to sell me a newer, less yellowed copy but i want exactly that book: that book has already existed six years before i was born. and now i am holding it in my very own hands. how can that be? where was i during those six years? this book is like a gap in perception to me. the cat bites her tail: what is time? i want to make time visible, tangeable. not in a symbolic way but in a direct physical way. that's why i use yellowing disintegrating paper and fading colours. i'm pointing towards that reality of death and birth ...