Artwork
Works of art developed in the course of the experiments convey the complex ideas emanating from the scientific research. They materialize the constructed knowledge of crude oil and its culture(s) in novel representations, embodying an evolving and transforming understanding of this substance. Playfulness and a poetic perspective encourage unforeseen imaginative combinations, enhancing greater engagement with and understanding of crude oil.
Exposed, 2020
The basic concept of photographic work is exposing analogue colour film material with the lightof different crude oil flames. For this purpose, other crude oils are burned in a specially made ceramiccamera, and a 4×5-inch sheet film is exposed to the fossil flame. The photographic image of the flamelight finds an aesthetic equivalent that makes it difficult to differentiate with the human eye visually. The photographic material exposed by the petroleum flame speaks of the dominance of fossil fire as the basis for shaping our civilizational reality.
Ölpest, 2021
In German, the term Ölpest signifies the contamination of the environment with crude oil and is metaphorically linked to the concept of a pandemic. The installation of the same name consists of a transparent hose system with associatively connectedhose-structural elements through which crude oil circulates through pumps. An electronic control systemactivates the oil pumps at random – this results in differently directed streams of crude oil with their ownvisual structures. Another installation element is a transparent plastic foil suspended from the ceiling,inscribed with translations of the term Ölpest in various languages by means of crude oil. The installation makes the widespread abstract reception of the substance of crude oil sensuallyperceptible…
Oil Soacked, 2021
The photographic work Oil soaked thematizes urban space and its energetic basis. In this context, Dubai is a representative example of a global metropolis based on international trade, tourism, excessive consumption and related extreme energy consumption.Its infrastructure, built in desert terrain, depends on using vast amounts of fossil energy and stands out for its most significant ecological footprint globally.In Oil soaked, crude oil conceptually functions as a formative element and dominates the photographicaesthetic. The urbanity of Dubai, filtered through a glass filter layer coated with crude oil, meets a film in a large-format camera and is mapped in unpredictable ways by the organic movement of the oil.An aesthetic of dependence…
Crude Oil Sculptures, 2021
The Crude Oil Sculptures series was created in reference to the oil rig sculptures of the 2008 Invisible Oilproject in Aberdeen, UK. Miniature oil rig sculptures made from everyday plastic parts serve as a templatefor the current crude oil object series. By creating a negative space in the complex form of an oil rig, a petro-object emerges from its source substance, crude oil, in shades ranging from brown to deep black. The liquid object thematizes in its physical form the omnipresent substance petroleum in its reality-forming moment.
Crude Oil Pump versus Honey Pump, 2021
Video 05:39 min “Crude Oil Pump versus Honey Pump” addresses the tension between mechanistic and holistic thinking,reflecting in its opposing actions the current process of our human existence in relation to itsfoundations. Two pumps, one filled with crude oil and the other with honey, work against each other. The substancesare pressed against each other and separated again at random time intervals. In this symbolicconfrontation, an uncontrolled and dynamic process emerges. In the art context honey is connected to Joseph Beuys’ works on the sustainable social system of the beestate and his concept of the social sculpture.
works of art I playful I poetic I engagement