vice city

paintings and digital collages 2004-2005

I collect the material for my paintings on photographic trips through real urban and suburban space, as well as on screenshot-trips through computer games.

In the digital sektches, I combine cutouts from different games and photos of construction sites. These areas are submitted to a steady process of reorganization, intended forms existst next to temporary forms as well as forms from the past.

The printouts serve as a point of departure for a painterly process. Similar to what 19th century painters were searching for on journeys to Italy, computer games provide light, motives, and the possibility to relate to cultural roots: The architecture and landscape presented in gaming worlds are a condensed version of what exists in reality. Different kinds of environments, even from differnt epoques, are gathered in a common relationship of time and place. It could be called a hypertopia.

Falling apart and at the same time sticking together, my paintings are presenting constellations rather than views.