From the wall series:
The Wall II, Element -8
2009, oil on canvas, 140 x 100 cm

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Prose

THE WALL

Currently, the focus of my artistic creation lies on the WALL pictures. My WALL is a continuous, potentially infinite series of images in oil on canvas. Numbered and signed on the back, each picture forms a separate element of the WALL. Starting with '0' as their departure point, the elements progress horizontally in both directions, that is, in the direction of both plus and minus. The motifs painted onto the individual elements of the WALL, largely borrowed from profane every-day culture, are selected following my own free associations. Doing so, I do not restrict myself to contemporary imagery, but I also cite historic material. On account of the sequential progression of the canvasses, the WALL offers me potentially endless space for the pursuit of all my associations. In some of the images, motifs protrude beyond the edge of the picture and are hence continued on the neighbouring canvas. In this way, any quote is theoretically possible, and the painful necessity of selection is at least partially defused. A conclusive interpretation of the image is excluded in favour of the artistic process.

I am currently working on four WALLS. These are differentiated mainly by the size of their elements. In WALL I, each element measures 200 x 140 cm. WALL II consists of elements sized 140 x 100 cm. WALL III has elements of 120 x 80 cm in size,
in WALL IV they measure 100 x 70 cm.

All signs I quote on the WALL are interconnected. Some in rather banal manner, some for complex and sophisticated reasons. To me, the correlations are completely evident, and yet this coherence is not always easy to explain. If I was to capture my WALL in words, I would have to write an endlessly long text...

However, since here I am required to shed light on my procedural methods, I shall attempt to note down key points of my chains of association.
These 'notes' cannot interpret the WALL in detail, but in turn present themselves as a form of independent prose, like a song, or a poem:

I begin (randomly) at element +2 of WALL I, Nibelungs

... I associate -
The SONG OF THE NIBELUNGS
Medieval epic poem, story of heroes, patchwork of fiction from the darkest past
midwife in the birth of a German myth



- I associate -
the gravedigger of a German myth as advertising medium for a cigar brand



- I associate -
VICTORY
Churchill said: 'We have slaughtered the wrong pig.'



- I associate -
the correct pig in the shape of PRAVDA (truth) present:
GORBACHEV



- I associate -
there is a Russian version of Coca Cola now



- I associate -
with Coca Cola, you stay sanguine, even as a woman



- I associate -
Santa Claus drinks Coca Cola, too
can we believe this?



- I associate -
Stalin also wants to be Santa Claus
this, we do not believe!



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© Jens Lorenzen 2011