On deconstructing and reconstructing the Self

March 2020 – as a reaction to the current pandemic and the accompanying global (aswell as personal) crisis, I started to make a series of artworks that addresses the importance but even more so, the potential that lies within reforming, rebuilding oneself and the structures one lives by. The potential of taking oneself apart to find new ways of piecing everything back together. Starting at point zero.

With reference to Kazimir Malevich and his last icon, the black square, which was at its time not only a symbol of radical reduction, a return to a basic core but most of all a symbol of „a dawning new age“. Malevich said he „took refuge in the square“ and so did I within creating these images and panels.

In times of upheaval, as we are experiencing it right now, ones own fundament might get shaken or even crumbles apart completely. Living with or even adapting to these changes is not an easy task and might be near impossible for some.

The reduction of the self that one knows, the slow deconstruction of oneself that can feel rather daunting, does not happen without inner friction and opposition of course. So, combining something as „real“ and objective as a photograph of a human body with Malevich’s idea of Suprematism and its very basic forms, which completely negates objectivity, is intended to be exactly that: a portrayal of contradiction.

This series of artworks is my effort, my encouragement maybe, to remind everyone of their own potential to reshape and rebuild themselves. Not just now, but anytime one feels the need to do so.
At the same time, these images also represent the different stages of this reformative process and the struggles and friction we are faced with, when going through it.

Within this series I have also taken myself and my usual way of working apart. Not only by using mixed media, but I have followed a clear concept and consciously chose my path to move forward with every piece, instead of being guided 100% by intuition and/ or chance as I would usually approach a project.

All of the photographs are silver gelatin prints that were made in my darkroom. Some of them were printed from manipulated negatives that I painted before enlarging them. The „negative prints“ were created by re-photographing already printed images and then enlarging them again. In this way, also reworking -rebuilding- already existing things. The panels were made of cardboard pieces that I collected from the trash, working with what was available, and that were then pieced together and painted with acrylic.