My ancestors were weavers, ironworkers and miners. I was born in 1969 into a heavily polluted city in Upper Silesia, when Poland was a communist country. My parents and I fled to West Germany in 1981.
In 1989 I began my studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Offenbach am Main. I have since lived and worked in New York, London and around the world. On this journey I have met family, partners and friends whose cultures I admire and strive to comprehend.
I am a perpetual immigrant, interested in the root of who we all are.
I am fascinated by how many events; the industrial revolution, wars , the artificial intelligence revolution, the climate catastrophe influence the way we think, feel and behave. I am also fascinated how our interaction with materials and data is changing the past, present and future of this reality.
I make my art with particles and waves: carbon pollution, fire, clay, memories, data and light. I draw, paint, photograph and write. All of these materials and everything I create are also on a journey.
My working methods link me to art’s ancient purpose. They also link me to the underlying intuition that connects everything and everyone. The everlasting transformation.
All interconnected.
All in balance.
All destined to change.
Written at Exmouth House, London, October 2020,
edited at Wilhelmsplatz in Offenbach am Main, June 2023
Photo of me above was taken by
Tony Brand, at the studio on Exmouth Market
If you are looking for an additional statement…
Much of the world as we know it is powered by what humans have either dug out, burned or have taken away from less fortunate people and living things. Some of these materials and how they are handled, drives us towards a climate catastrophe with all of its implications, including extinction of species; possibly us.
Some of the energy is used to feed algorithms that fool us better and better into believing them as human, possibly also driving us towards a species redundancy.
We are experiencing the shockwaves of historic events both ancient, recent and current. Be it from the planetary transformation, humanity’s emergence, the industrial revolution, wars, the artificial intelligence revolution, the climate catastrophe.
I use pollution particles, aged inks, flames, clay, data and light to create work that lets me find patterns within me and in whatever creates us.
My work lets the viewer see themselves in the context of this massive, ongoing transformation. This ever repeating journey will continue long after we have all turned into dust and beyond.
But while we are here, we might as well realize that we are not as special as some would like us to be. We are humbly part of a larger, complex, beautiful ecosystem that could do very well without us, and eventually will.
I collect pieces of information, memories of long gone systems, organisms, other unexpected materials. I nurture them into my art. I grow patterns and I help particles become something new or something that they might want to be. My art is not here to please anyone. It has to be created out of a larger creative force that’s beyond me.
All interconnected. All in balance. All bound to change.
Also written in Offenbach. February and June of 2023