S M O L

In grafitti culture, there is a practice known as “throw-up”. Throw-ups are quick-to-execute paintings designed for simplicity and speed. Little, if any, time is spent on details or further refinement to the finished painting. In this series, I chose to work in the spirit of the “throw-up” with a special focus on speed of execution with little or no detailing or further elaboration on each square. Essentially a sort of “automatic” painting, a “throw up”.

The “50 by 50” series is my intention to accomplish two things. One being to completely cover the walls of the room with paintings, and secondly to have the paintings be adjustable and/or replaceable. The individual paintings have not been titled and the viewer is encouraged to build their own version of events. How they see it all fitting together.

The pictures below are a selection from the series.

This series of drawings is a selection from my obsession with the technique of cross-hatching. There is much in these lattices and simultaneously so little.

In this series I wanted to set out for a long walk. Step by step, line by line, to drift away and return, time and time again. These walks asks one to let go and let the mind wander ceaselessly between thoughts bubbling to the surface and then receding. No decisions need to be made here, just keep a mild sense of observation and gliding over the surface.

On the eve of and well into the beginning of this new millennium I often saw something which I had not really noticed before.

Gigantic gatherings of people, often in protest or otherwise demonstrating but also in celebration and religious fervor.

I remember the first one, a protest against the WTO, now called “the Battle of Seattle” which took place in 1999. Other great gatherings were the colored revolutions in former soviet states in the early 2000’s, the worldwide protests against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Occupy Wall Street in 2011 and the Khumb Mela festival in 2013 which drew 30 million people. I could only follow these events from a distance which led me to ask; What did these crowds actually look like?

Sometime back in 2015 I came across the story about a group of soldiers in Afghanistan whom, during a routine patrol, come across a cave. They enter the cave and discover something which they then in turn discuss with locals. The locals tell the soldiers that they must have stumbled upon so called Vimanas, the war chariots of ancient gods also described as something between a machine and a building.

There are many legends told of Vimanas even detailed technical descriptions on how they might work but there exists no other evidence of their existence. For all this I found them to be an excellent painting exercise.