Publikationen

Rollfeld

The works of Martin Vosswinkel all have one thing in common: that's their development from nature. Wholly within the tradition of the beginnings of art, Vosswinkel paints, installs and performs with, in and from nature. Already the very first cave paintings in Altamira around 13.500 BC or Font-de-Gaume dealt with the natural environment, with the artists representing their animals and people with materials provided by nature: Colours of mineral origin were pulverised and fixed with oil or animal fats. Whether in Ancient Greece, Rome or mediaeval panel painting, natural pigments were always the basis of every form of picture or figurativeness. The colour pigments utilised were created from different types of earth, such as ochre; "Azzuro oltramarino" was obtained from semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli and verdigris1 was acquired through the corrosion of copper. Only as a result of the development of aniline dyes in the 19th century were the natural pigments and thereby the direct contact with nature displaced in the development of painting.

Martin Vosswinkel reintegrates and binds nature into his works of art by the utilisation of earth based colours, charcoal, elderberry or curcuma (turmeric, from which curry is won), for the design of his rolling paths. In this, the pigments are applied both in the sculptural sphere2 (Rollfeld 1997, Curcuma, figure 1) and in painting (figure).

Yet it is not the traditional utilisation of colours, but an individual contemporary approach that is utilised by Vosswinkel. The three-dimensional spheres are not designed on the surface by the pigments, but rather consist of them, whereas the two-dimensional paintings reveal the colours through an individual style of application3 and an aura that betrays the influence of the twentieth century. The artistic materials used become objects of art themselves in the realm of sculpture. The tackling of questions concerned with nature and the different forms in which nature is manifested does not only play a role in the choice of materials that the artist, who was born in Erlangen in 1963 uses. His projects are always oriented towards "Land Art", i.e. a style of art in which landscape becomes the art object itself, in short, where the guidelines are presented by nature. The Rollfeld installation (figure 1) as well as the tree drawings, where nature becomes the artist itself and which developed within the context of the project "Ein Kunstspaziergang in Bremen-Schwachhausen" (An artistic walk in Bremen-Schwachhausen) in 19974 can be interpreted as Land Art projects.

Similarly, later works like the "Driftwood Cinema" of 1998 or the Installation Hotline from 1999 point in the same direction. His latest works such as the Performance Rollfeld II (figure) which eventuated in Worpswede in January 2000, focus his whole attention on the image of the line, a rather formal aspect, as well as the phenomenon of time in the guise of transience. The paintings of the 37 year-old portray more than just the mere representation of nature, but moreover also depict a great interest in pictorial aspects such as surface and line.

The works from the years 1995 to 19975 concerning the phenomenon of "earth fragments" are thus concerned with questions pertaining to flatness and monochrome painting, all of which are fundamental questions of painting and abstraction. At the same time, the first Rollfeld(er) were taking form, which Martin Vosswinkel has been developing further ever since. From a progression of works of great density (figure??) in which the line has neither a beginning nor an end, but instead has to compete against a strong labyrinth overlay, there is an increasing tendency towards the monochrome. The structure begins to become less dense in the latest works, not only in the superimposed layers, but also with the carrier material that serves as the basis for the works of art, which of late includes acrylic glass, perspex and transparent PVC. Whereas works such as Rollfeld 99235 (figure) still display an interest in archaeology6 in the sense of shape and form, as well as layering, the work Rollfeld 99108 (figure) is concerned with networking, whilst Rollfeld 99218 (figure??) portraying tracks, traces and shadow trails is concerned much more strongly with the phenomenon of light. The graduation of sheets of acrylic glass, one after the other, reveals the colourful effects of the penetration of paint and light. In the case of Spur and Schattenspur (tracks, traces and trails of light and shade), there is a certain three-dimensionality in the foreground on the one hand, due to the shift of the actual "objet d'art" away from the wall, yet of much more significance is the work with the patterning of light, that is brought forth as a result of the shadow trail on the transparent base material.

The artist has dedicated a series of 16 Rollfeld(er) to this theme! The line, the element of the drawing becomes autonomous to all intents and purposes, by means of the interplay of light and shade in the shadow markings. It is only subjected to the changes in the light conditions and thereby removed from the artist's control. Here once again, as in earlier works7 the artist withdraws from the work, providing it with a self-dynamism, a changeability in which nature, here in the form of light, becomes the artist and carries out the actual drawing.

Only few artists manage to depict the unity of art and nature as clearly, as Martin Vosswinkel does in his quiet insistent works of art, whilst at the same time allowing that entity "nature", which shapes and influences the whole world around us such a degree of freedom!

Christine Vogt - Translation: Detlev E. Gross