#463 Your Head Here

Visitors are welcome to sit on the chair and take a selfie where their head fills the void in the picture. They are invited to post the photo on social media.

Art has always reflected the viewer in that his inner beliefs come to light in the interpretation and experience of an artwork. Thus, the viewer is always part of the work. Of course, the same applies to all experiences of our surrounding world.
The selfie culture that has emerged with the digital image can be seen as an extension of this. Now we also place our exterior in the picture. But an image is a linguistic representation because it is experienced through perception. A face is a sign for its bearer and can never fully describe the subject's inner experience of himself. Hence the repetitive nature of the selfie - the subject's self-understanding is one of its main objects of desire. No matter how much we stare at ourselves and how many pictures we take of our faces, it can never fully capture what we look for in ourselves - who we really are? That is the function of desire - we seek something, but what we think we want, the object of our desire, can never satisfy us. There is always something wrong or missing when we get what we desire, so we keep striving for it repeatedly in a continuous cycle.

Speaking Stones is a compilation of paintings made with imprints of ordinary stones.

I see the stone as a metaphor for popular struggle and protest. It is the closest available weapon to the powerless. Throwing stones is a symbolic form of violence. The aim is not to overpower the opponent physically. It demonstrates defiance in the face of power by expressing concretely that the premises of the situation aren't acceptable. The stone speaks but not in a language open to negotiation or dialogue. A conversation means accepting the context in which it takes place and is thus always, to a certain degree, a form of submission. The language of stones is the language of mute matter. A form of silence that nevertheless speaks clearly and directly. The stone represents the resistance in itself from a place outside of language.

The stone is an entirely exchangeable and ordinary object that exists everywhere. At the same time, each stone is unique and has its own beauty and unfathomable mystery for anyone open to seeing it. This duality fascinates me. A stone is perhaps the closest we can get to a thing-in-itself, bound as we are to language. Sealed around itself, oblivious to the outside world. Simply existing. In a way, we can never truly understand. Infinite in its everydayness. Specific and concrete in its presence.

Res Ipsa is a compilation of works made by an act shaping the filler once it is prepared inside the frame. The works thus function as a recording device and give a statement of the event taking place while the filler was still wet.

Res Ipsa is Latin for "the thing itself" and is part of the juridical term "Res ipsa loquitur" (the thing speaks for itself), used when an injury or accident in itself clearly shows who is responsible, such as an instrument left inside a body after surgery.