My drawings and paintings are the visual terminus of a much longer method, and their surplus, or extravisual, meaning may be found in the archeology of their making: My process starts with performances staged in my studio, where my co-swirlers and I carry out potentially painful acrobatic exercises, such as walking the tight rope, climbing ropes or juggling, dribbling or balancing on balls.

This initial physical experience, driven by a desire to first experience as manifest reality the symbolic content of my images, is documented with a camera and subsequently mediated by cutting out the naked figures from these source shots and reassembling them into collages. Like lost wax, the photo collages gradually disappear while serving as visual documentation for drawings and finally paintings.

The optimal viewing experience for this series requires ropes suspended from the gallery ceiling. These are intended as expansions into three-dimensional space of this series’ central recurring pictorial element: The string of beads. Their presence in the exhibition venue brings the creative journey full circle, i.e. back to the initial physical experience occurring in my studio. The gallery-goers willing to step into the circus ring to swing on the rope for a minute can see the images unfold from a participant’s perspective. And because my pictorial epic is partially a comment on being fully present in one’s body, I want the viewers to feel the strain in their own limbs as they slowly glide through the air.