1010

The current exhibition „Abyss“ of 1010 at Affenfaust Galerie shows mainly paperworks and acrylic paintings from his Abyss-series.

With well-balancend colour shades and precisely placed shadow-effects one is enticed on the edge of an illusory chasm and the eye is led down into darkness. The paperworks show deep holes, which arise out of deftly put papers laying on top of each other. They have the effect of an optical illusion. On flat substrate they suggest a virtually impossible depth. The hole as a from of something that´s missing, isn´t just something missing but rather it contains informations, which are determined by it´s shape. Which shapes and whose outlines these are, will not be revealed here. The artist uses pruposely a beautiful aesthetic to catch the viewers eye. The topic that hides behind the beautiful-to-look-at, is a rather critical.

In contrast to the colourful paperworks, the acrylic paintings are kept in monochrome tones. One can see strange creatures with bodies of worms and heads of birds. Half parasite, half provider, a being which can be self-perpetuating or self-destroying. They are symbolical for mental processes which are inherent in the human psyche. The birdworms convolve to abstract forms, which remind one of numbers, letters and symbols. Signs we see everyday, we use and absorb, which we hardly reconsider but react to automatically. Just like a bird can only react to the signal colours of his chicks' throats with feeding, so we also react to these symbols. 1010 likes to play with this kind of automatisms. He uses their mechanisms to reveal our reflexive mind. He wants to encourage people to independent and reflective thinking. What is the seen about? How do certain forms originate, what do they stand for and which processes do they trigger? Questions we should ask ourselves more often.

1010 is born 1979 in Rastenburg, lives and works in Hamburg since 1987
In is art he deals with language, symbols and signs, with automatisms of perception and the structures of society. 1010 is a conceptualist. His art doesn´t explain itself. An elaborate system underlies it, which evolved over the last years. It´s up to the viewer to perhaps detect it on his own.

Text: Judith Hofer