INCISIONS – CONCEPT
| BACKINCISIONS
In 2008 the Health Insurance Association Westfalen-Lippe commissioned me with a public art project for their new headquarters in Dortmund. The core of the building was completely removed and redesigned by the architect Thomas Schmidt, SSP AG Bochum. In total 10 public artworks were commissioned and bought by the Insurance association. These were made by different artists between 2009 and 2010. A catalogue of these public art commissions has been published and can be obtained from the Health Insurance Association Westfalen-Lippe in Dortmund (Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Westfalen-Lippe).
When making the art work ‘Incisions’, I focussed on the raw concrete walls of the building and photographed its surface. The concrete walls appeared unusual with cryptic signs akin to typographic abbreviations on their surface and I did not understand their significance for the building process. It was also unclear, whether these marks and signs were of recent or older origin. To me they were like cave paintings of a late industrial period.
The photographs I made of the concrete walls were installed onto the sites where the images were taken. The wall was then rendered, leaving out the space of the photographs. In this way ‘incisions’ were formed, making the underlying core of the building with its characteristics and rawness visible.
In 2012 I developed a further edition of photographs from the different sized segments of this work. This edition is part of the collection Gaby und Wilhelm Schürmann in Berlin and Aix-la-Chapelle.
A few years later, in 2015, I intuitively started to ‘encase’ the photographs of the original concrete walls in the same way as the concrete used to be poured originally. The images are being framed or encased with wooden boards found on building sites. The quality of these boards inspires me and has an impact on how I use the wood. The unframed photographs of this edition come in two sizes: 40 x 40 cm und 100 x 100 cm. Even though the photographs are an edition, the individual pieces are unique because of the different frames used.
Translation: Babette Martini
When making the art work ‘Incisions’, I focussed on the raw concrete walls of the building and photographed its surface. The concrete walls appeared unusual with cryptic signs akin to typographic abbreviations on their surface and I did not understand their significance for the building process. It was also unclear, whether these marks and signs were of recent or older origin. To me they were like cave paintings of a late industrial period.
The photographs I made of the concrete walls were installed onto the sites where the images were taken. The wall was then rendered, leaving out the space of the photographs. In this way ‘incisions’ were formed, making the underlying core of the building with its characteristics and rawness visible.
In 2012 I developed a further edition of photographs from the different sized segments of this work. This edition is part of the collection Gaby und Wilhelm Schürmann in Berlin and Aix-la-Chapelle.
A few years later, in 2015, I intuitively started to ‘encase’ the photographs of the original concrete walls in the same way as the concrete used to be poured originally. The images are being framed or encased with wooden boards found on building sites. The quality of these boards inspires me and has an impact on how I use the wood. The unframed photographs of this edition come in two sizes: 40 x 40 cm und 100 x 100 cm. Even though the photographs are an edition, the individual pieces are unique because of the different frames used.
Translation: Babette Martini