Travel to Oman

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For me, travelling means the absence of the everyday. Leaving the familiar environment, stepping out of everyday routines offers the possibility to focus on the essentials. If I leave my personal comfort zone, I accept uncertainty and risk to experience change and discover something new, even in myself. I experience places that feel alien, yet offer tranquillity, rest, and new strength at the same time. There is a strong interaction between place and person. If I move in unfamiliar terrain, I need a reorientation. This also means deceleration. I am forced to re-discover light conditions, colours, silhouettes, sounds and odours as well as people who surround me more consciously. In a new cultural space things remain encrypted, nebulous. The unknown can appear threatening. Familiar perceptions are interrupted. Examining new surroundings, I also question my own perception. Pictures burn into my memories.

My trip to Oman provided all these impressions. I was curious and impressed, but also irritated. The expanse of the landscape, gleaming light, rugged rocks, unbelievably clear water, turquoise and full of sparkling little fish, a dense sea of clouds, coloured earth, thorns, the smell of sand and incense, almost deserted places - barren, still full of life.In this reduction, I sensed being and passing. The transience of things was directly tangible. Back home, I kept longing for these places and the feeling of discovering a secret place that is so empowering, because it is so different, so strange.

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As in all my paintings, I supplement landscapes by geometrical forms. Here, the ornaments are based on the "Flower of Life" first used in the palace of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal around 645 BC. Completing the patterns of the original ornament, I get 19 intertwined circles. They visualize mathematical and universal laws, such as the theorem of Pythagoras. By some, it is considered the most perfect and strongest symbol of power. The intricate circles are representative of the everlasting circle of life. In my paintings, the ornaments function as disturbances. They interrupt the habitual visual behaviour. Underlying areas are partly obscured and veiled. The opaque hides and underlines features of the landscape at the same time. The eye wants to explore what is under the structural breaks.