Josephine Baker Cycle

Tutu De Bananes, 1998
Steel
approx 90 cm height, 90 cm diametre, 1,4 cm strong

steel, synthetic protection layer

The last work of the cycle. For the whole cycle please click here.

Duncan Matrix

The Duncan Cycle

Duncan Matrix, 1999
Steel, 24ct gold leaf
approx 150 cm height, 90 cm diametre, 1,4 cm strong

steel, synthetic protection layer

steel, synthetic protection layer

Last piece of the cycle. For the whole cycle please click here.

The Amazons

The Amazons' Matrix, 2000
Steel, 24ct gold leaf

150 x 300 x 1,4cm, ca 450kg

Amazons


In ancient Greek times, the patriarchy was ‘invented’ and established as political form. Thus women were considered as less worthy than men, which is still a common view on this planet. It was said, that a woman, to be as good as a man in ‘male’ skills, has to delete some femininity in herself or her body.

A direct impact of this decision was to be seen in the reporting of the Amazons, who were described as being ‘as strong and skilled in war crafts as men’. In the first 1000 years of historical coverage by the Greeks, they have always been seen as normal women. After this period of time, when the patriarchy was carburized in the subconscious, the narration of Amazons tales was attended by pictures of women with only one or even without breasts, which they should have burned or cut off with a sword for the better handling of bow and arrow... it was even said, that the name ‘Amazons’ came from the ancient Greek ‘á mazòs’, which was meant to be translated as ‘without breasts’, which was disproved in later times as a peoples derivation.

I allow my Amazons to have full, strong and beautiful breasts. Just as an expression of life force and joy to be a woman. And as a tribute to the original reports of their members.


Another important aspect of this work is the theme uniformity.

When you look at the Matrix, you will see this army of Amazons, 28 of them, where every Amazon seems to resemble the next, like one egg to another. But if you take them out of their army, see them quasi naked, you discover that they are all individual. Without their arms, you can only tell about their profession by the posture they share.

So please take this thought and think it to the end.

Amazone no. 21

Text der Amazonenmatrix
auf die Matrix in altgriechisch mit 24ct Blattgold geschrieben

Penthesileia hat, wie alle ihre Kriegerinnen, wahrhaftig zwei, noch dazu unübersehbar üppige, Brüste. Der überlieferte Mythos, nachdem Achilleus sich erst unmittelbar nach der Tötung und Entwaffnung der Amazonenkönigin hoffnungslos in sie verliebte, mag durchaus in dieser Üppigkeit jener weiblichen Attribute begründet gewesen sein. Dass indessen alle Amazonen, kriegstüchtig, wie sie einmal waren, sich um der Kriegskunst besserer Ausführung willen einer oder gar beider Brüste, sei es durch Stahl oder Flamme entäussert hätten, ist eine Erfindung späterer Epochen. Dieselbe ist einer jenem Weibervolke allenfalls psychosymbolisch angedichtete, doch ganz und gar nicht real, geschweige denn mythologisch gerecht werdende Zumutung. So liegt denn auch der Erklärung des Wortes "Amazone", gemäss a-mazós, also "ohne Brust" (=busenlos) eine längst als falsch erwiesene Volksethymologie zugrunde.


Zu den Amazonen

Was passiert, wenn ich einen Menschen aus einer scheinbar gleichförmigen Masse -in diesem Falle eine Armee- herauslöse?
Was tritt hervor?
Hier zeigt sich die Individualität, die Haltung, der höchst persönliche Ausdruck, bar jeder „Stammeszugehörigkeit“, die sich an Oberflächlichkeiten festmacht. Dieser Mensch ist quasi pur, seine inneren Werte, seine Würde, sein Maß an Kraft und Selbstwert zeigen sich ungeschminkt, er kann sich nicht verbergen hinter Uniformitäten eines bestimmten Standes.
Er zeigt sich unverhohlen in der Essenz seiner Persönlichkeit.
Es sei denn, er hat gelernt, selbst nackt sich zu tarnen. Doch was muß geschehen sein, daß dies vonnöten ist? Daß ein menschliches Wesen so wenig Vertrauen hat, daß es sich niemals zu erkennen geben möchte? Wievielen von uns ergeht es so? Wer kokettiert damit? Und wieviele haben den Mut, sich entblößt in all ihrer Verletzlichkeit, Kraft und Schönheit zu zeigen?

Penthesileia, the last queen of the Amazons

installed during one of my open studios in Cologne

detail

vladimir

vladimir: approx. 13cm high and 1,2kg heavy.
full bronze cast.








available are no. 2/8 - 8/8

side view, pic by david nassim

masters raving madness

once upon a time, when my heart was in search for the right path to follow, I decided to do an apprenticeship as a blacksmith to broaden my skills and knowledge for my sculptures. I got a place at a posh craftsmans company and started.

I very soon was forced to realize, that my work 'masters raving madness', that I had made a year before, was visionary..

sometimes it does not feel too good, to be confirmed.

Divine Angels and The Fence Riders from above

A short video offered by a company who shot it in 2009 on a garden fair I participated in.
Contact them via this link: go ahead!

Wide Screen Buddha

Wide Screen Buddha

Nowadays a religious stimulus satiation cannot be avoided, no matter where you try to escape to.
We see mullahs online or on TV shows, we all have already heard of those funny TV preachers you cross every now and then in US Television, and some hindu priest will definitely tell you on an indian broadcast what Hanuman or Ganesha suggests to do.

Infront of this background I wondered how a Bodhisattva would act, when he finds himself in front of a TV camera, being asked for a sermon…
…and I had this image of him bursting out in laughter and telling everyone to just enjoy life, not taking yourself too seriously and laugh out loud when you catch yourself being stuck in old patterns.

To transform this image into my language, I chose nine equally shaped steel blocks, and arranged them into a video installation format, with an approximate 16:9 proportion, and added my sign in 24ct gold leaf on the upper left block, just as if ‘I’ would be CNN or Al Jazeera or ..

So when you install your Wide Screen Buddha, please put a candle and incense sticks underneath the installation, and adjoin some nice flowers. You will find out that when you take some minutes in front of him, a smile will sneak onto your face and your mood -no matter how dark it might have been before- will lighten up real quick…

The Wide Screen Buddha exists so far in approx 90 x 105 x 2 cm (above) and in 150 x 260 x 1 cm (below).

Bourrée Sorcière and The Fence Riders

Bourrée Sorcière, 2006

steel, 24ct gold leaf
approx. 180 x 180 x 1cm

Bourrée Sorcière, front view

Bourrée Sorcière and The Fence Riders, side view

It is the year 1952 ... Alexej Sacharoff looks back to a fulfilled artists’ life in dance, stage and costume design as well as painting. Nearly fifty years he performed and produced formidable art pieces. At that time he still continues creating more celebrated works, and after a lifetime of travelling and moving around the globe he settles down in Rome. Then he scetches another choreography onto a paper, the ‘bourée fantasque’... 

... 53 years later, I found the scetch in a book while doing research on Alexej and Clothilde Sacharoff, the famous dancers couple. They have been in the surroundings of ‘Der Blaue Reiter’ (‘The Blue Rider’) and members of ‘Neue Künstlervereinigung München’ which both have been trailblazing artists groups, developing abstract art and Expressionism. Members of those artist groups have been Wassily Kandinsky, Thomas von Hartmann, Gabriele Münter, Marianne von Werefkin and others.

As dance and dancers are deeply inspiring for my work, I loved it straight away. 

I translated the choreography into my formal language and developed 'The Fence Riders’ and their

Matrix, ‘Bourrée Sorcière’, where the score is leaf gilded on.

The Fence Riders, still in progress