"Reaktor" Fascination of Forms (no AI!)
It was in 2021, after my third local exhibition, that I began working with the packaging patterns of mass-produced products. I started experimenting with them and incorporating them into my existing style, which at the time was predominantly expressive and abstract.
I became fascinated by the forms themselves and the visual possibilities they offered. What began as a simple experiment would later become a central element of my artistic practice.
It quickly became clear that this was something different—something new and compelling, at least to me. I continued working with cardboard packaging, using it in various ways as a visual and structural element within my work.
In contrast to what I had painted up to that point, these forms possessed a quality that I found both mentally calming and deeply satisfying, while at the same time powerful. I felt compelled to look beyond their obvious function and explore what these pieces of packaging—normally regarded as little more than waste and often collected from shops accompanied by puzzled looks from store employees—might reveal.
Gradually, I began to sense traces of a larger picture: one of design, efficiency, optimization, and the structures of the modern world that had produced them.
And further: What do these forms reveal about us and our culture? About a technocratic world that has steadily expanded into many areas of society—remaining largely in the background, unobtrusive and often unnoticed, yet powerful and seemingly difficult to resist?
The painting Reactor deliberately leaves the viewer free to react.
Mundane packaging revealing the world that made it. I've circled the same intersection for an hour waiting for rain to show what's already there. The overlooked forms do most of the work.
thank you Sabryna for sharing. As I am obviously a non-nativ in English, I am not quite sure what your poetic words do say. Could you elaborate for me? What you mean by “waiting for the rain”?
Very much appreciated.
martin