Croqland explores the metaphor of the land being a living ancient entity onto which human society is built - in relation to Queensland, my state of residence for the last twenty years.
The Croqland installation was completed in 2013, and is based on a 5m vintage stuffed saltwater crocodile.
Stories of how I got my hands on this creature and other news from the belly of the beast can be found here.
While the huge, dusty crocodile suggested itself as a landscape almost inevitably, over the course of making Croqland, the metaphor opened itself up to deeper examination on different levels:
These are being explored in The Croqland Suite.

While there are many cultures present in contemporary Queensland/Australia, all with their own mythologies and cosmologies, I have often felt that the dominant British penal colonial and GlobalCorporation 'cultures', violently grafted onto, and fast spreading over the land, lack the connection of a slow growth over time, and the mythical traditions that develop with this growth. While the original, indigenous culture of this land has the most to offer in these terms, viewed on a global [and time] scale, contemporary Australian society has not yet successfully undergone the process of collectively re-conciliating with it's violent past, and it's indigenous culture.
Attempting to offer more than a traditional mythological image, the combined images of the Croqland Suite seek to fill a void in contemporary Croqland culture by offering a justified and ancient story through an heraldic icon, while also stimulating debate and understanding to integrate different value systems and ways to see the world. The method by which it attempts this is by refracting the central image into different 'wavelengths'. The Croqland Suite explores and visualises connections and constructs central to functional, living, growing 'cultures', their at times vastly different underlying values, their coexistence and their clashing, in contemporary Croqland.

Croqland attempts to offer a contemporary mythology, easily accessible to people not interested in ‘the arts’, based on naturally and pop-culturally obvious imagery, but still profoundly true and useful as a working mythology with enough spiritual depth to offer Croqlanders of all walks of life and cultural background a metaphysical connection and grounding solace to contemporary Croqland culture andequally important: The Land.
The Croqland Suite explores the metaphor and myth of the land being an all encompassing ancient creature on which society is built, in relation to Queensland, and Australia as a whole.
The Croqland Suite started with the Croqland installation [2013], which is based on a 5m vintage stuffed Saltwater crocodile.
See here how I got my hands on this creature
…and other news from the belly of the beast.

While the huge, dusty crocodile suggested itself as a landscape almost inevitably, over the course of making Croqland , the metaphor opened itself up to deeper examination on different levels. Croqland Suite became the catalyst for my observations and interpretations of collective Queensland/Australian culture and remains my main project.
While the images here are of smaller, preliminary works, larger mixed media works, and editions of screen-prints and etchings are planned and/or in varying states of progress.
Check in again, or subscribe, to keep in touch to find out when more works will be released.

While there are many cultures present in contemporary Queensland/Australia, all with their own mythologies and cosmologies, it is obviously visible that the dominant British penal colonial and global corporation-'cultures', violently grafted onto, and fast spreading over the land, lack the connection of a slow growth over time, and the mythical traditions that develop with this growth.

While the original, indigenous culture of this land has the most to offer in these terms, not just for Croqland, but viewed on a global [and time] scale, throughout known Human Historical lense, contemporary Australian society has not yet successfully undergone the process of collectively re-conciliating with it's violent past, and it's indigenous culture.
Attempting to offer more than a traditional mythological image, the combined images of the Croqland Suite seek to fill a void in contemporary Croqland culture by offering a justified and ancient storyline through an heraldic icon, while also stimulating debate and understanding to integrate different value systems and ways to see the world. Stylistically it does this by refracting the central image into different 'wavelengths'/styles. The Croqland Suite explores and visualises connections and constructs central to functional, living, growing 'cultures', their at times vastly different underlying values, their coexistence - and their clashing, in contemporary Croqland.

photomedia series

Scans of physical micro-assemblages, made from manipulated insects.
Unnatural History - Überflügelt is a slightly dystopian satire on Humanity's passionate, compulsive attempts to improve on the natural, physical body - one's own, each other's, and the fellow creatures'.

All prints are available in 4 strictly editioned sizes.
All artworks are signed and numbered by the artist.
The prints of this series are printed with Epson Ultrachrome K3 long life pigment inks on 260gsm archival Epson Premium Lustre Paper.
To allow for both, matted and un-matted framing options, prints have a generous white border, which is specified in the respective print size (see: Installation views).


Print sizes :
Portrait format[LINK]
Square format   [LINK]

As the document|monument project developed and grew over time, an obvious categorisation of subject matter and compositions developed :
- Seeds,
- feathers,
- insects
- portraits of single individual creatures, and
- compositions of some
- and of many objects.

Objects, subject matter that had been subjects, radiating so much live an meaning even after theirs is over - the storytelling and pattern-recognition functions were switched on almost permanently....

Document|monument investigates meaningful ways to document the [sub-]urban evidence of ‘micro-wildlife’: Dead insects, feathers, bones and seeds, in a somewhat monumental form.

1. I find and collect these things on my daily routines within suburban and greater Brisbane.

This childhood trait resurfaced upon moving here from Hamburg, as response to the incredible bio-diversity in an [sub-]urban environment.

Re-instating a proven inventory method of the natural world, I attempted to grow a connection with my new home, similar to the connection I have with my first home.

I had taken the natural connection to my old home so much for granted, I was unaware of it’s strength and significance, until I had left.

The process of finding these natural relics keeps my perception tuned to what for most people is invisible, or litter. Spotting a beetle, feather or interesting seed generates joy, hope and connection in me. It is a survival mechanism, grounding and connecting me to this place and to the deep-ecological/spiritual reality of being member of a species, co-cohabiting with other species, on this planet.

2.  The image making
is where I attempt to convey all the above through high resolution magnification and composition. The documents become monuments to local life-forms and bio-diversity, giving them the consideration I believe they deserve in our awareness, as evolutionary siblings and ecological equals, inhabiting the same system.

The magnification and high resolution of the desktop scanner provide the level of detail for the viewer to be drawn in, sustaining their curiosity, rewarding them with surreal, transcendent and transporting beauty.

The main aim of the works is for the subject matter to speak for themselves, translated into universal human/visual language.

As the series developed, I found my approach somewhat paralleled the works of 19th Cent. German zoologist and artist Ernst Haeckel, and early 20th Cent. photographer and designer Karl Blossfeldt:

Both were obviously deeply fascinated by their subject matter, and their aesthetic enquiries were based in contemporary theories of evolution and design/creation principles of form and function – informing and partially subverting their attempts at objective documentation.
Both artists have been formative in my aesthetic development and artistic understanding, their art being the central tools to their quest to understand and enjoy natural principles of life.

As the document|monument project developed and grew over time, a 'natural' categorisation of subject matter and compositions became obvious:
Seeds, Feathers, insects
Portraits of single individual creatures, and compositions of some and of many objects.

As the document|monument project developed and grew over time, a 'natural' categorisation of subject matter and compositions became obvious:
Seeds, Feathers, insects
Portraits of single individual creatures, and compositions of some and of many objects.

a lot of 2D scanner Ikebana happened...
 

This body of work was created during a retreat/residency at Mt. Nebo.
It extends the methods of document|monument by introducing non-organic materials and the effects of light beyond the scanhead.
Exploring the narrative and symbolic potential of the subject matter to tell explicit stories, and provoke these in the viewers eye.

As in:  "Anstralia - U turned upside down"

The German idiom meaning 'to get the bigger picture' translates to: 'Being able to see beyond the edge of one’s own plate'
 

The Anstralia Suite consists of several still images and a DVD.

Information on the still images are under each image, information on the DVD, including artist statement, as follows:

Anstralia Suite DVD, 2007, 38:34mins

1. Anstralia v 2.0 [honey_mine] 9:15mins

2. Anstralia v 2.1 [ants in my pants_tectonic plate mix] 1:59mins

3. Anstralia v 2.3 [moving still_extended eon flux mix] 23:30mins

4. Anstralia v 1.1 [Phase 4 memorial_lo-fi dodecagon edit] 4:30mins

Anstralia Suite comprises 4 versions/remixes of essentially the same “moving still” image based on the outline of Australia formed by sugar ants eating honey water.

Anstralia v 1.1 is a re-edit of footage taken in 2005 on a digital still-camera. The video footage was an afterthought while watching the ants, as the whole set-up was only ever intended to produce still images. While working with the stills and exploring their various meanings, it became clear the movement of the ants and the process of the logo-like shape of Australia diminishing, was a lot richer than the stills.
Anstralia v 1.0 was home-edited on free software and first screened in 2006 (not included in DVD). Based on the devouring of Australia by black ants it peered into a dark corner of the collective subconscious of Australia, reflecting the use of fear and demagogics in politics with surrealist, psychoanalytical undercurrents.

Over time the non-political aspects of the image became equally important to me and the different strands of meaning ordered themselves somewhat. The set-up was repeated at the same location, in a different season, with a video-camera proper.

The new footage was used for Anstralia v 2.0, 2.1 and 2.3.

The use of sub-titling and editing was employed to spin the viewing experience off in several directions, on several levels, at once. Within the four versions the attempt was to point at, and balance out, the extremes in juxtapositions: Domestic, global, geological, geo-political, temporal, spatial, funny, serious, natural, manipulated, simple, complex, did I forget any.

The attempt to gain permission to use an existing track ('sheap') by 90's underground ambient dance project PsychicWarriors Ov Gaia resulted in the collaboration with one of their former members, Dutch composer Reinier Brekelmans.

His enthusiasm for the preliminary edits and alignment with my artistic vision resulted in individual scores for the four works, which greatly enhance their meditative and hypnotic qualities.
His shared fondness of the 1970's B-movie Phase Four, resulted in him using dialogue from the film which comments on positivist, exploitative and controlling attitudes towards 'nature', and ironically also on the somewhat sparser performance of the same ants (or their descendants) in the re-shoot two years later.

Formally the concept of remixes is reflected in the packaging of the work, which mimics a 'maxi-CD': It comes in printed jewel case, with track-listing on the back. Apart from the reference to the concept of the 're-mix', it also pays homage to the influence of music on my visual arts practice.

Bonustrack:
After the filming I discovered the outline of Australia with the words ”Australian Fine China” on the underside of the plate, which ended up on the back of the DVD case.