Elmar Vestner

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Artist statement

Works on paper, collages, plots, and painted and sanded photographs exist in various different stages of dissolution, of transition. I approach the motif by applying and removing paint, by scratching and dissolving, systematically deconstructing the pictorial surfaces. Images I have found or photographed myself of gardens, discotheques, caves, mountains, plants, forests, cloisters, and statues become corroded, pulverized, fogged over. Scratches and traces of sanding break the image down into spots of light or superimpose themselves like veils. There are repeated allusions to Romantic painting, Gothic motifs, and processes from alchemy. Alongside music, I also often use poetry as a source of inspiration for creating a body of work, a series of images or the concept for a show. A huge influence is the literary work of Walt Whitman and his role as a flaneur in an ever-changing city landscape. I pick up on leitmotifs from Whitman’s cycle such as evanescence, disintegration and decay and a fusion of emotional states with symbols from nature.

Artwork