Spray Paint on Canvas
2016
The painting Heimat-Liebe is resultant of a discovery made in the attic of a house where I lived. Originally a canvas pre-printed with outlines like a colour by numbers, but without numbers, it depicted a landscape. A picturesque scene with wild meadows, a central lake surrounded by bushes and trees fading into forests, and the rough peaks of the mountains as the horizon.
At the time of making, I had been persistently confronted with fear of loss. My family had made the decision to give up my childhood home, and the house I had lived in since I started studying in Stuttgart had been sold. Most pressing was the lawsuit, which had forced me to plan my escape to a country that didn’t maintain extradition agreements with Germany. In response to these pressures, I began my examination of the term ‘home’.
Home, a place you love more, the further it becomes. In my experience, home is something one romanticises when further away. What does home mean at its core? Through the pre-printed, kitschy depiction of landscape on canvas, the romantic idea of the artist is commercialized and made consumable. A parallel romanticised idea made me leave my beloved home, family and friends. There are two versions of the artwork Heimat-Liebe. One tries to exaggerate the scene’s beauty through its surreal colouration, while the other displays a closer reality using a naturalistic palette. I used spray paint and stencils for the painting, my favourite media when I lived in Allgäu and dreamt of studying Fine Art.
It is still unknown whether this landscape really exists.
13.07. – 15.07.2014 Annual Exhibition 2014, States Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, DE