PATRICK CIERPKA, SPIRIT, 2019, acrylic and oil on canvas, 150 x 210 cm
To turn staggeringly around the own axis, to feel the wind, the speed, losing all sense of time and space, while at the same time merging completely with them... Movement is more than locomotion, more than a mere contrast to standstill. It determines how we perceive and experience our surroundings, how we locate ourselves in our experience of reality.
The phenomenologist Henri Bergson (1859-1941) describes movement as change in space, which for us is synonymous with our sense of time. This goes hand in hand with the fact that conscious perception of movement as a flowing „transition from calm to calm“, the feeling of „to somehow inhibit the passage of time and to hold the future already in the hand.“
In his luminous snapshots that magically capture us, Patrick Cierpka shows that the experience of movement can be just as hypnotizing as the immersion into a drawing matter: The waves of a lake in the twilight like in „SPIRIT“ or the rapid rotary movement of a carousel like in „TRAUMFÄNGER“ - the powerful colours captivate us and at the same time make us aware of the uniqueness and universality of these impressions.
To capture moments in their entire density and to make us questioning our sense of time while sinking into them - this artistic goal is achieved by Patrick Cierpka through showing the passing reality as a photographic stream of consciousness, which sets our „inner cinematograph“ in motion. To see the experience of the moment as a creative act means to put the viewer as perceiver in an active position. Cierpka creates visual and painterly experiences and plays with the crossfades to challenge our ability to focus.
The experience of blinking when looking directly into the blinding sunlight, as in „NOW TIME“ or in its glittering reflections on the water in „MEDIUM (S)“ seems almost like an overexposure of our perception, dematerialized by the glistening white that catches our gaze. The result is a kind of afterimage, both visually and in our experience, which remains in the moment when everything around us continues to move. The interplay of the light and the intense rich colors create a kind of concentrated nature experience. The suggested fuzziness allows to experience the painting on multiple levels, different impressions interfere and contours melt. These transitions prolong the floating state of the gaze even further and permit the captured moments a remarkable duration and depth, which makes us merge with them.
Using representational elements, Patrick Cierpka awakes our personal memories by hinting at universal experiences and feelings. At the same time, he paints abstract color impressions that are able to cause numerous different associations in our imagination. In this way the artist creates visual experiences, which draw us deeper and deeper into their spell, until the time seems to be completely standing still.
Text (German OV): Sabine Mehnert