Niki Van Schnabel

HONORABLE PROFESSIONS OF AYURVEDIC SCHNABELTIERE (DUCKBILLS)


...in general, thank goodness and thanks to van Schnabel, do not rank among the endangered species yet, for fortunately on or
they meet with the appreciation they require in order to survive.
...
Duckbills quickly show the readiness to put up with the company of man. This tameness is part of their disposition. And, as is often the case, at the same time part of their doom. Because, shamefully, for many fellow-humans duckbills are just a walking vegetable (which can be reaped without hesitation) or a subspecies of a tree or front yard decoration - while in truth they have a story to tell to us humans and should therefore be counted among the modern philosophers.

The message of the duckbills is cheerfully simple at first glance: "here I am".

Concealed behind this, however, - apparent not until the second glance - is the metaphysics of existence itself. Who among us has not yet tried to comprehend himself? And that in vain and repeatedly!

The duckbills exemplify the answer: "croak, whistle, chirp" - as an expression of liveliness, as an expression of nature absorbed in itself.

A duckbill is what it is and wants to be just what it is. This is its unfat...

1973 – 75 Studium an der Bayer. Staatslehranstalt für Photographie / München
1975 – 79 Freier Fotograf / München
1980 - 81 Theaterlabor / Wroclaw
1980 – 82 Kunsthalle / Hamburg – Organisation von Ausstellungen
1982 – 85 German. Nationalmuseum / Nürnberg - Fotograf
1985 – 88 Universität Erlangen - Fotograf
1988 – 90 Kameramann Bayr. Rundfunk / Nürnberg
1990 – 93 Studium an der Akademie für Werbung / Bonn
seit 1993 Freie Malerei / Traben-Trarbach