benzinLAB

LOCATION
cologne, germany

TITLE
1. reisezeichnung 1
2. reisezeichnung 2
3. reisezeichnung 3
4. reisezeichnung 4
5. reisezeichnung 5
6. reisezeichnung 6
7. reisezeichnung 7
8. reisezeichnung 8

STATEMENT
„Every idea begins with a drawing. It helps understand the form and gesture of a vague notion you might have in your head.
My drawings I tend to enjoy the most are the ones i created of my surroundings when I am waiting for time to pass. I don’t Look for a specific subject to draw. I randomly choose a point in what I see before me and work from there. I forget all rules of perspective and composition and just build my drawing like a spiderweb from my starting point.
Sitting in cars and trains I’ve documented on numerous travels which I have decided to bring together as to recognise patterns and differences between my journeys.

Travelling from point A to B is usually Felt as boring and lost time, which one forgets quickly in retrospect. By documenting that time I feel like I’ve given it importance and relevancy in my life. Looking back at the drawings reminds me of the time and thoughts I had, which gives me a weird way to reconnect with myself.“

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FREAKS, I SEE LIFE

TITLE

MEDIUM
acrylic paint on canvas

INTERVIEW
B: People following you on social media will quickly witness how much you actually produce. You have a studio in Cologne, right? A workplace, or a playground?

C: I believe that a good studio should be somewhere at the crossroad between a playground and a working space. Children play. That’s how they learn to interact and understand the world around them. That naive curiosity is the foundation of all my work. Childlike simple questions like: what will happen if I mix this resin with dry leaves? Besides the initial reactions, things I see give me a starting point from which I can either explore and expand. However, the romantic notion “good work is solely a product of will, play and spontaneous inspiration” is not true. The studio also needs to be a place of concentrated working and thinking. Discipline and reflection are the mature part that differentiates a work of art from the drawings of children.

B: You mentioned how invested you are in researching. Various materials, techniques and the types of paint, which define your early work. What are you currently working on? What do you look for when you start a new project?

C: The ability to recognize what I like and dislike in a painting is something that I have always been self assured of and the only criteria I use to rate how they turn out. Most paintings start off with a clear idea and a sketch that I use as a map for the painting. I draw out areas and define where elements of coincidence are allowed to happen. But to be honest, I never know how the painting will play out.

More often than not, the outcome will not look exactly like what I intended to create, but rather propose a new image, which I can decide to work out in a new sketch I draw over the first painting. I repeat this process until I am satisfied with the result. By working like this elements of chance play into the final image, which I could never have planned or visualized. I then translate those elements into techniques I can consciously use in new paintings. So basically my current way of working, is a game of table-tennis between the conscious and the unconscious, because of that, a painting can take a couple of hours or years to make.

Currently I am feeding the conscious side of my work by practicing classical drawing and painting methods. Understanding basic concepts of light and shadow, gesture and structure, really helps me in my work. At the same time I am working on larger format canvases. I am trying to make images, depicting numerous figures, work for me. They are still very much works in progress, so I don't want to give away too much about them yet.

B: Exhibitons! Exclude money, time and space. Is there a project  you would like to realize in the future, regardless of any limitations?

C: I would love to work with very large reinforced formats. Two times three meters large kind of formats. I am very interested in seeing my approach to painting on sizes which can completely immerse the viewer. Also having larger supplies of paint and anything else that sticks to canvas would be of advantage. I would work on the subject of landscape painting and try to capture the feel of potency one would find in german pine needle forests. A very classical theme, but I feel like it hasn‘t been done quite right yet, I sense there is lots more to explore and find in that subject matter.