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 

some photos from 'time being'

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. 

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 ... 

a sketchbook for the brooklyn art library

i decided to take part in the 'sketchbookproject of the brooklyn art library'. it is a wonderful iniciative of a new york based company called 'art house' that organizes global art projects. it works like this: after registering you get a standardized sketch book which you can fill with whatever you like. after finishing your book you send it back to 'art house', where it will get catalogued into the 'brooklyn art library'. so instead of your book getting dusty on a shelf at home, it is now available to whoever wants to look at it at the library. imagine going to that library of only ORIGINALS! wow - every city should have a library like this ...  www.sketchbookproject.com/library/13588

here are a couple of pages of my sketchbook: this is an almanac of colors collected on the road of my life between dec2012 and jan2013. the colors i found are so small and arbitrary that you may not notice them in everyday life: a piece of ribbon, a petal, a dry leaf... it is their randomness that intrigues me. it may be fate or futility: any way, now their arbitrary stories get woven together into a string of color. and in a way they make sense now.