Biography
For my artworks I find inspiration in travels to different countries that have included China, Mongolia, Honduras, Mexico and India. These find my interest because traces of their past have not vanished in daily life but are often left in their rough and original states. This differs from European countries where so much of the past seems covered, cleaned up and polished. I find it interesting to see how people have lived and are living now. Silent witnesses of human activities in the present but especially in the past. The history that can be read from finds such as old shipwrecks on a beach in China, activities of nomads in India. I call them 'archaeological observations' and the resulting work is a hushed residue. I want to pass on some of those observations to the rest of the world.
It is not that I actively seek inspiration during my trips. Things simply cross my path and I start wondering what happened here – and what is going to happen in the future. Fortunately, I can capture some of these impressions with my camera.
"I usually start with a concept, an idea. Then the creative process and finally the result gain in importance. "
A photograph may be a document but as a work of art it seems devoid of feeling. Consequently, I might use a selection of media, such as metal, wood, copper, collage drawings, graphic prints, besides photographs. By using different techniques, the context seems to shift, and the artwork becomes more self-contained. Compositions may thus appear to have existed for a long time.
I often compare my work with the idea of a train station. A station can be a point of departure or of arrival. On a trip, stations also pass by as intermediate points, where you might just look through the window and watch what’s outside. You can take that impression with you and keep it in the background of your thoughts. I see my works as such intermediate points; each work is a part of me, an impression I took along with me, from which I might have created it.
For the visitors contemplating it, my artwork might be a point of departure, an inspiration. And for those who keep my work at home or in their office, my design can represent an arrival station - a finished piece of perfection.
