Stefan Jeske at PAW
@st.jeske

The enemy from within: Perhaps a transition can be seen here between the underground and above-ground spheres. The elongated opening in the hill-like formation - maybe this is where the Subterraneans squeeze through to move from one world to the other. Once in the other, above-ground world, surreal mountain landscapes reveal themselves, from which the man-made has almost completely disappeared. Only isolated traces of civilization can still be seen, occasionally a wall, elsewhere a Gothic window, complete with a view into another reality. Otherwise, man is a stranger in this world. Access possibly possible in dreams.

Smooth areas of color alternate with mosaic-like details, fantastic surface structures... abstract surfaces layered into figurative representations. In the process, color becomes light, leaving areas glowing and others in shadow. The viewer‘s gaze is constantly drawn to the sky with its various cloud formations: Altocumuli, strotocumuli, cumulus clouds, sometimes surprisingly realistic, sometimes abstracted, stylized. Here, too, figuration borders on abstraction and vice versa. In places, the boundaries between objects become blurred, clouds take on the shape of mountains, hover on the horizon without a connection or pile up to form a second, temporary mountain range. States intersect: the permanent, timeless nature of mountains, volcanoes and rocks meets the fleeting nature of clouds, the movement of water and lava flows. Stagnation and change as opponents and partners.

Furthermore, times merge, suns rise and set. Transitional moments become spaces of possibility in which an end allows for a beginning. The perspective changes again and again, sometimes the view goes from the inside to the outside, sometimes one stands at a point above the vast landscape. It is not always possible to see the whole picture. What does it take to move walls and mountains?

Here and there there are connections to the unknown: A hole in the ground, an opening in the mountain, a volcanic crater and a gap in the valley. The question always arises: should you go in there? Do you really want to know what is hidden there?

Text: Ferial Nadja Karrasch