The moon as seen from Beijing

The image entitled “The moon as seen from Beijing” implies that it is a photograph or a map of the moon. A bright, circular disc with surfaces reminiscent of craters, furrows, terrain formations or elevations gives the impression that a luminous celestial body appears/is depicted. However, it quickly becomes clear that this depiction does not show the Earth satellite we are familiar with. A view of the moon from China seems equally questionable.

A closer look reveals the actual origin of the textures: as in the series “Untitled (Spring and Autumn)” from 2015, it is a photographic image of a wall plastered with mortar, which shows the characteristic efflorescence and discolouration on its surface caused by moisture, as we know it from old buildings.

Just as poetry, especially in China, takes nature as the original and essential model for poetic-artistic observations, this work takes the non-poetic, the material reworked by man as the source material for a “depiction of nature”. The weathering processes that occur naturally (produced by heaven) are, in a second round, once again placed in an artificial, lyrical context. In fact, it is once again “nature”, albeit through the hands of man, that provides the basis and impetus for a renewed poetic contemplation of the world.