DAS FERNWEH, Untitled No 23 Painting

I’m far more interested in what’s left behind after the destruction of the paint surface, it’s all and everything that we must build on. The destruction of the paint surface causes me to change direction. I’m interested in the connection between what’s gone and what’s left behind. In conservation circles they speak about the agents of deterioration and areas of loss. These are phrases that interest me, there is a sense of history attached to them, they speak of a life lived by an object affected by time. Through the making and destruction of the paint surface a narrative is built. Its own history made. Its own life lived. The destruction of the paint surface causes scarring, this scarring builds texture. My practice lives in the space between familiar and unfamiliar . There are many failures, and each layer is built on a failure. There is something that happens in there between layers, it is like the slowing down of time, like a methodical move forward, like multi-tasking in slow motion. The constant scarring and destruction of numerous layered paint surfaces sometimes produces something beautiful. Sometimes, something beautiful is built on failures.