Joseph Beuys

Even though Master Joseph was cycling in my street many times (in a selfforgotten, somambulant and dangerous way), I missed to speak with him about art. We only spoke about direct democracy, and today I am sorry that we had no contact on a higher level. But his spirit is still swirling in this town, where I live. I owe him very much, most of all, to be regardless to conventions...to cross boarders and to see the mystery in simple things. Thank you, Joseph.

Moyland Castle

Picture edeting helps us, to connect different aspects of reality, to construct them in a new way, and suddenly we understand the mystery of a place. Here for example Moyland Castle near Kleve, with the huge Joseph Beuys museum. The mystery of the place is to connect old architcture with new ideas and paintings. By combining two fotos we can drag this feeling into the visible world.

kings church in Madrid

In this case, colours and blurring are used, to see more than the simple realty. They help to see history, power, darkness inside..

Maria della Guardia

Picture must not always be clear. The blurring and vagueness helps us to see the mystery.

swimming pool

If you have eyes to see, even in the sober athmosphere of public swimming pool with its chlorinated waters you will find swirling colours.

Tulpet

Colour can help to understand structures. In modern biology we use this effect, for exampel when miscroscopes look into the cell and help use to understand the cell division. Why not use the same effect for art?

Carnival2

If Saint-Exupéry is wright, when he said, that you only see clearly with our heart, you don´t need accurate forms on a picture. The colours will transport the feelings of the situation.

carnival in germany

Do you feel the vibrations?

By the way... you don´t even need a good camera always. Sometimes I prefer a ordinary photocamera of the mobilphone, like here. It helps you to smash the forms into... bits (-:

italian lemons

head fractal

the eye of the spy

The more you emphazise the colour,the more you intensify the abstraction. This was already prooved by Kazimir Malevich, when he painted the "red quadrat" in 1915. At first he saw a "farmwoman in two dimensions" and in the end there was just a red canvas. That was a picture editing in his head. Now, we can have the same editing process with the pc programm. But this is no excuse to stop thinking. Still we have to know, where we want to go.

on stage

black and white!?

Some people say, that black and white photos have more character, that they are more sincere, noble and real. They permit more reduction to the substance. I perfectly agree with it... as long, as there is a tiny litle spot of colour. Colour means love, wormth and energy, even in a cold world.

metamorphosis

It was just a peacefull evening, no cloud, some dust in the valley, when the metamorphosis from the foto to a abstract painting began...

fractals in the swiss alps

Don´t say this happend merely as a hazard!

abstract view over the glacier

Sorry. In reality, there was no glacier at all... But that is not the most important. Pictures like this will have no chance on the art market, because the player of this market can not pigeonhole them. Those, who are looking for paintings, miss the canvas, the signature and the wooden picture frame. Those, who are looking for photos, miss the reality, the clear structures.

This kind of art will live in the unknown, unless we have a maschine to "paint" photos (what is not the same as printing) or ... the kiss between photography and painting comes to the public awareness.

I confess, I was a photo...

Das Manifest des Relativismus

For hundred years, we thought, that photography means reality. That was wrong, because it´s a false idea, that there is only one way to see reality. The same object will be seen different by a cat, a dragonfly, a butterfly, a bird or a human being. Lets ous take a beautifull lake as an example.

The cat with its different eyes, seeing above all the infrared colours, may see it in another way. And the view of the human beings will be the third.

Who is gonna tell, which view is wright and which is wrong? Noboddy. It´s the same situation as if you watch the sky with different kinds of telescopes. The X-ray telescope will bring other results than the infrared telescope. And in the opitcal light, which man can see, you will have the third impression of the examinated sky region. Each telescope will give you special informations according to its capicities.

There ist not one image of reality, there are lots of it. So if we know that, we have the right to find new aspects in our photos. We dont manipulate them, we just find new realities and astonishing new aspects behind the first view. All these pictures above are based on photos, but more and more they are moving towards painting. Thats what painting means: find new aspects of reality.In this sence, we can practise painting with photos. We are at the border between painting and photography. They kiss each other. They love to kiss each other. Nothing will be successful without love.

In tibetan philosophy, there is a symbol for knowledge and the loss of all illusions: the ritual knife "kartika". If we want to find a modern way of thinking, a expression of art, which fits to our time, we must use such a symbol knife in our thinking. Leave behind what seems safe and true. See it in a new way. See it with the knowledge, which is won by physics, cosmology and astronomy. We are little worms in an old apple, lying in a nowhere garden. What we can see and realise is not much. Our mind is in many ways imprisoned, bound and restricted. We cant even see half of the light waves which are emitted by an object. So, what do we see?

When I opened this blog, I was not sure, what would be the theme. Would it be a diary, would it be a photo album? Now I found out: we´ll talk about art. Contemporay art. About art in the 21th century. About the world and what we see, about artists and computers. About mankind and universe. About Philosophy and Photography. About love and hate. Because nothing great can be done without love. And without hate we will not be able to distinguish between good and bad. Ok? If you want to continue, if you want to read this blog, first of all: close your eyes and tell me what you see. Reality?

The birth of cho.land

Das hier ist der erste Post auf cho.land

What is choland? Choland is a tiny little island in the universe. With one inhabitant, one boot, one house, one fish, one palmtree and with one flower.

And of course Cho.land is a message in a bottle. I dont know wether anyone will ever read the text and see the photos. It even does not really matter. Cho.land exists. and its telling the truth. Some day someone will find the bottle. And he or she will drink...