My most recent work: a self portrait, created on the occasion of the Elmar Lause curated group exhibition "Das eigene Ich", which opened May 16 at the new location of the Affenfaust Galerie in Hamburg St. Pauli.
44 artists were invited to present their (inner) selves in self portraits for this show (complete artist line-up and exhibition information below).
About the work
This self portrait, created between April 5 and May 9 2015, is a combination of a complex, sculptural woodwork, my trademark woodcutting technique and diverse painting and pigmenting styles. I also used resin in the structure, which not only is a new favorite in my materials palette, but also ads the necessary weight to the piece. The complexity of the work and how it was composed and created over a stretch of four weeks at my studio is an important part of my 'self' within the admittedly unusual portrait. Besides various rather personal narrative elements, followers of my work will not be surprised that there is a double team blowing the clarions, which is also a reference to the 'creation' of the Alex Diamond project over a decade ago.
This work, 170 x 130 x 10 cm large and slightly heavier than your average painting, is titled after a quote (taken out of its original context) from a Mike Patton/Tomahawk composition: 'I owe you a love song / for everything I've done wrong'. This is not necessarily simply an attempted excuse to those who still deserve one (or more) from me, but also a way of understanding the importance of making mistakes and figuring out ways of dealing with them. What could be better than writing a love song whenever you are taking the wrong turn? At the end of the day, when all goes dark, there will be no view. Only music.
This picture gallery below is a small documentation of the process involved creating the work:
'Das eigene Ich'
curated by Elmar Lause
Affenfaust Galerie
Paul-Roosen-Straße 43, Hamburg St.Pauli
www.affenfaust.de
Exhibition from May 16-June 4, 2016
featuring self portraits by these artists:
ALEX DIAMOND, ANYM, BASE 23, BENE ROHLMANN, BJÖRN HOLZWEG, BOJE ARNDT KIESIEL, CARINA CRENSHAW, COCO BERGHOLM, DANIEL FALLER, DANIEL V. EENDENBURG, DAVE THE CHIMP, ELMAR LAUSE, FABIAN WOLF, FLORIAN BREETZKE, FLYING FÖRTRESS, GOLDEN GREEN, HEIKO MÜLLER, HENNING KLES, JANA SCHUMACHER, JAYBO MONK, JOHAN SCHÄFER, JOHANNES MUNDINGER, JULIA BENZ, JULIAN GORTEN, JÖRN STAHLSCHMIDT, KI YOON KO, MAGDA KRAWCEWICZ, MARC BRONNER, MARCO WAGNER, MARCUS SCHÄFER, NONSKI, MYMO, NICOLAS FRÈMION, NIELS DE JONG, NILS KASISKE, NILS KNOTT, PATRICK FARZAR, PATRICK HENNE, PUSH, ROMAN KLONEK, SUSANNE KÖNIG, SYLVIE RINGER, ULI PFORR, VARIOUS AND GOULD, ZIPPER DIE RAKETE.
Exhibition view from the group show "Das eigene Ich" at the new location of the Affenfaust Galerie, Hamburg.
