Glogau AiR

UPDATE: my Glogau Artist profile page is up

New start at Glogau's Kreuzberg studios. I will be here for three months.

Here is the project proposal I applied with:

Some concrete questions I’d like to think of GlogauAir include the following. Before a language takes grasp of one’s experience, what is the initial visual “alphabet”? What is visible before there are words to describe it? Once the words enter the picture, do we see the same as before? Are there universals in transmitting meaning? Can visual symbols, colours, shapes hold consistent meaning across cultures? Is there such a thing as a universal visual protolanguage? When looking at ancient written systems and decorative arts. What are the symbols used and the meanings embedded? How do they intersect with heraldic and other “official” iconography systems? These communicate grandeur, importance all over the world and history.

Then there are the written marks. There is an enigma in the sway writing holds on the observers. It calls for interpretation and “reading”, even when reading is impossible. Like looking at writing in a foreign language. One cannot help but wonder what is the content of the mysterious markings.

Also, I’d like to work to evolve my process and sketch more before I create a painting. My usual process is quite fluid. It revolves around ideas of playing and repetition. The painting materials I use are simple and unfussy. Canvas, paper, acrylic paint and a plethora of pencils, pastels, and crayons. I let materials, space, collaborators, and subconsciousness lead part of the way. I make the first step, usually with a colour shape. Then another step in response to the first. Weighing the lay of the image, the composition. Stabilizing the tensions between colours and empty and filled spaces. All have to balance in harmony. The image discovers itself through this process. Like an archaeological excavation. Or brick by brick construction.

The final picture bears the marks of its creation, the trials and errors that came with the search. I leave a lot of the surface bare to stress the rawness of this process. The risks taken. The fragile balance of freshness and thinking through.
GlogauAir will lend me space and time to think through and develop these ideas. As well as get inspired and germinate future ideas and possibilities.