Die Kastanie
| Edition | Original Art |
|---|---|
| Sujet | Portrait |
| Technique | Zeichnung |
| Height | 42 cm |
| Width | 29.7 cm |
Technique:
Ink, gouache and chalk on drawing paper
Year: 2019
This work is a portrait of an old tree with which I had a personal connection, as I passed it almost every day for several years.
I associate very special childhood memories with chestnut trees, but in general, trees fascinate me as wonderful keepers of secrets, showing us – often not just in metres but also in years – just how small we humans are. Trees used to be a place for me to play and a sheltering canopy, and they can still comfort me. I am often filled with awe when standing before an old tree and imagining all that it has witnessed. Trees are witnesses.
There were always trees in my family’s garden, and after they passed away, they also stood beside the graves of my (great-)grandparents… Pears are linked to my family history just as they are to that of the Ribbecks.
In Norway, I realised how much one can miss the rustling of leaves in the wind, and just how special that sound is when you find yourself in the (by far the majority of) parts of the world where there are no deciduous trees. When I discovered that, a few years ago, the three centuries-old trees standing near the place where I grew up – trees I used to walk to as a child with my nursery group and which I still visited during my secondary school years – had also died due to climate change, it made me feel very wistful.
Postage:
Includes a certificate of authenticity and a signature on the reverse.
t.rick
. Themes: Trick is particularly interested in spaces: in the relationship between interior and exterior spaces and the interplay and conflict between physical and psychological levels; for Trick, the two are inseparable. Given Trick’s background, his perspective on the world is psychological and/or clownish.
Working
Method: Trick works less according to formal rules than to intrinsic, intuitive ones, and endeavours to make complex relationships physically comprehensible in a manner appropriate to the subject matter. Consequently, Trick’s working method is multimedia-based; depending on the idea and occasion, Trick draws and paints, designs and constructs spatial sculptures, works with film, advises on performing arts productions (with regard to direction and set design ideas), writes texts, or engages with sound and music. Artistic themes develop from personal everyday life and the immediate surroundings, for example in Berlin-Gropiusstadt, where Trick lives. In doing so, physical objects always engage Trick on a theoretical level as well, because they raise questions of ‘meaning’ (and as a consequence of the artistic realisation that it is generally impossible to unscrew one’s head).
It is a
genuine concern of Trick’s that art should be ‘realistic’ (which, for Trick, means ‘appropriate to the object’). Trick aims to develop relational and communicative works. In his artistic practice, Trick does not fundamentally distinguish between reality and fiction, realism and abstraction; instead, he endeavours to remain playful, process-oriented, unfinished and open to surrealist and absurd elements, so that there is a chance for concrete poetry to emerge.
- Career: Stage performances featuring unicycle acts and juggling (1995–2013)
- Studies and professional experience in psychology (Diploma 2010, several years’ work in youth welfare and psycho-oncology)
- Acting training in clowning and comedy (state-recognised, School of Dance and Theatre, Hanover (TuT), graduated 2014)
- Acting engagements and directing internships/assistant roles at municipal and state theatres, in independent productions and film;
- artistic services at the ‘Büro für Künstlichkeit’;
- studies in stage and costume design at the
- Berlin-Weißensee Academy of Art;
group exhibitions
2025 “0 Years.” Leave No One Behind, Münzenberg Forum, Berlin
2023, 2024, 2025 “Rundgang” (annual exhibition) at the Berlin-Weißensee Academy of Art
With SKM since September 2025.
Other artworks by the artist
