You’ve been named Artist of the Month by the Student Art Market. Congratulations!

Where are you studying, and what are you studying?

 I’m studying English and Art to become a secondary school teacher, whilst also doing a Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature at the University of Leipzig.

Would you perhaps like to give us a brief insight into what you’re currently working on?



Over the past few months, my art has engaged extensively with the field of Orientalism. The focus has been on the iconoclastic impact of Edward Said’s book *Orientalism*, published in 1978. The term ‘Orientalism’ is a critical concept that describes the disparaging portrayal of the East – that is, the Orient – which is common in the West. The societies and peoples of the Orient are those living in Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. Said argues that Orientalism, in the sense of Western scholarship on the Eastern world, is inextricably linked to the imperialist societies that produced it, which makes much of Orientalist work inherently political and subservient to power. In my paintings, I have selected stereotypical Orientalist oil paintings and deconstructed them. In doing so, I have attempted to visualise Said’s iconoclastic effect. Building on this approach, many of my current paintings explore a similar deconstruction of the ‘female gaze’ and gender-stereotypical paradigms in both English and German literature.

 

What materials and techniques do you prefer to work with?  

I’ve been working with oil paints right from the start and can’t imagine using any other medium. I apply the paint using all sorts of things: brushes, palette knives, cloths, rulers, sometimes even clothes I no longer like – it all happens very spontaneously and without planning. 




Do you work in a studio, or, for example, ‘en plein air’ or from a model?

I don’t have a proper studio. When I started painting about eight years ago, I did so from my childhood bedroom. I simply loved coming home from school and being able to start painting straight away. This became a habit. Nowadays I paint in my room in a shared flat, which has hardly any furniture or decorations, as I want as much space as possible for my art. There’s paint everywhere: on the furniture, the floor, all the door handles, and on practically every item of clothing I own. I work and live, so to speak, in my oil paints. 

I always ask artists who inspires them and where they get their ideas from. Is there anyone in particular who inspires you?

I’ve been following the Norwegian artist Henrik Uldalen for a very long time; he continues to shape my fascination with the decomposition of bodies to this day. Over the past three years, I’ve engaged with pretty much every pop-culture artist and either experimented with or even adopted various elements of their modus operandi. Think, for instance, of Stein’s linguistic approach in her poem *Susie Asado*, Pollock’s floor-based works, Rothko’s layering of countless coats of paint, Basquiat’s intertextual use of semiotic signs, and so much more. 



How do you choose your visual motifs? Do you always have a specific goal in mind, or is it more a matter of feeling?  

My visual motifs usually emerge at university during a lecture. It’s important to me not to develop motifs from an artistic context, but to view them through the lens of another academic discipline and then consider how I can visualise or embody them. As soon as I have a rough idea, I start painting. I never have a finished image (motif) in mind – that would simply bore me.

Which themes have you been exploring for some time?

Ever since I first picked up a brush and oil paints, I have been exploring the human body. Initially, this was within the context of studying nature and nude painting. Since starting my degree, I’ve increasingly explored this within the context of literary and cultural studies. This primarily concerns aspects of gender performance and the dialogue between genders. I approach this both diachronically and synchronically across contemporary history.

Who are the people you portray? Or do they tend to emerge in your mind?

 I see myself as part of the tradition of a postmodern artist. My subjects are exclusively references to other artists, as I am a strong advocate of intertextuality.

What is your relationship with the nude body, a motif that recurs time and again in your work?

The nude body always involves concepts such as shame, morality, guilt, taboo and passion. I think my art also oscillates between these concepts. At the same time, I feel that we often associate nudity with vulnerability. I think that, particularly when it comes to topics such as gender performance and the dialogue between genders, these are all emotions that arise naturally. In art history, there is a long tradition of the female nude by Old Master artists. 

I have explored this question in the context of Orientalism in my artwork “Exploring the (fe)male gaze”. An essential component of Orientalism is the (fe)male gaze. In past centuries, this gaze upon the female body reduced women to mere objects of seduction. In my artwork, I have sought to dissolve the superficial connotations of the (fe)male gaze and to focus on the more abstract aspects of human nature. When the superficial gaze disappears, what remains is the complex nature of the unknown. 



Your backgrounds are usually unedited and the figures seem to be floating in mid-air. Where does this composition come from?

  As I often explore abstract themes, it just feels right to place my subjects in a sort of imaginary space. Colour and the effect of colour also play a part in this, though I try to apply my choices subconsciously and intuitively. I like it when my subconscious is part of my pictures – after all, it is just as much a part of our thinking.