Title : Rough Sea, Burned Ocean, Awakening
Year of production : 2024/26
Materials : Acrylic on rusted metal and charred wood
Dimensions : 120x100cm × 3 cm, 82x82cm × 7cm, 100x100cm × 3 cm
Description
The three paintings depict a story of two contradicting powers of nature in “Rough Sea” and “Burned Ocean”, and their resolution in the third piece “Awakening”.
Contrast and tension are central to these art works—IRON, WOOD, TIME, FIRE, and WATER shape their visual language.
As climate change accelerates, rising sea levels and extreme weather intensify its power. Rising waters, floods, droughts, and wildfires confront us like uncontrollable forces of nature. Flood and drought – two extremes that never meet to temper one another – gain their destructive power from the absence of balance.
“Rough Sea” tells a story of the Ocean which is about to go above the limit to threaten our existence while it keeps showing all its colors, movements and beauty in its immutable way.
“Burned Ocean” imagines the world where the climate goes to the opposite extreme, and even the ocean and sky are burned to void, with only the ray of light at horizon and little water remains as hope.
The third painting, “Awakening”, introduces a catalyst for transformation – a silver lining on the horizon, light reflected on the ocean. With each dawn we are given a fresh start, a chance to explore new horizons and continue to grow. It is a reminder that change is not only constant, but also a source of unparalleled beauty and turning the potential monstrous power into a catalyst for positive bright transformation.
Artist Statement
Born and raised by the North Sea, having studied in the US, worked and lived in Barcelona and Tokyo, now with a studio in Switzerland, my cosmopolitan background plays a big role in my borderless approach to my artistic practice and my continuous exploration of bringing different worlds together in my artworks.
I combine my painterly processes with the raw, archaic aesthetics of steel, oxidized metal, and charred wood in my artworks, where surfaces confront us with wounds, cracks, and scars. In my artworks images and objects emerge whose power derives from their structures and atmospheres.
My work focuses on the great force of nature, the deep inner world of human beings, and contrast and fusion. Water and horizons appear throughout many of my works as metaphors for inner landscapes – a space where memory, longing, and possibility meet; where fluidity, decay, and regeneration, external matter and inner vision coexist. Horizons speak of dissolution, renewal, and the changing nature of existence, always shifting and elusive.
Within this interplay of opposites, solidity gives way to movement, memory shifts into possibility, and transformation emerges as both wound and miracle.
I combine these contrasting elements to create a „harmonious discord“ where time seems to stand still and where the past, present, and future are questioned.