XX Geka Heinke
27.09.-05.10.02

GEKA HEINKE: PAINTINGS

(...) We are exposed to an ever increasing flood of information. (...) The state of constantly fluctuating meaning qualifies our terms of perception. In my paintings I am interested in giving expression to this relativity. I depict mass-produced objects from the everyday environment, isolating the individual motif to photograph or develop on the computer, before realising it as a painting. In one sense I strive for 'neutral', 'close-to-reality' reproduction of the painting's object. On the other hand I place it in situations and seen from points of view which allow it to appear ambivalent:
Under various lighting, one and the same object can have different appearances. Does the surface describe a bulge or a hole, a reflection or a transparency? Is the pattern primarily meant as a serial structure, or does it describe a spatial, 'real-life' situation? (...)
The formal painterly qualities counter this illusion: the materiality of the paint on the painting's flat surface remains perceptible, so the illusion disintegrates upon approaching the painting. In earlier works I used the photographic device of focus / out-of-focus to break up the object. In more recent works I free the objects completely from their background, cutting their spatially distorted forms out of wooden panels. This brings to the fore the competitive relationship between the painting's illusion of depth, and the object-like character of the image carrier.
The object is always one thing and simultaneously the other. My work seeks this moment where the familiar tips over and becomes suddenly strange. This is the moment in which the tension arises, upon which the piece depends for its effectiveness.

(Geka Heinke)