Jupp Soetebier
"the static now subset b | die vergeblichkeit des schicksals" is a series of 20 10x10x3 inch works on canvases created as an investigation into residual feelings after speaking with my birth mother for the first time in May. It is the second subset series, the first being a reaction to discovering who my birth father was and being embraced by his family. This series in addition to a support set of 30 11x14 inch works on paper will be exhibited and made available for the first time at stARTup Small Works.
While visually abstract, my work is not expressionist. It is archaeology in reverse. Normally consisting of 8 to 12 or more completely articulated layers, the final piece is a history of what came before, sometimes recalling and improving on ideas and movements of the previous layers, sometimes obliterating them. Countless sketchbook drawings, hours of contemplation, reading and deeply personal contextual thought go into each piece and series. There is a final point at which each piece or series reaches a singularity. It is then I apply a final application of white paint, a transformation I call The Veil of Consciousness.
Of note: I use a sculptured surface to bring the image into the real world instead of hiding it behind a picture frame. It is visceral and confrontational. It addresses forms of haptic/tactile memory and takes it from a short term experience into a kind of permanence.
"I am my thoughts and nothing at all. How do personal events shape, define, and motivate my actions? If at all. Do past, present, communal, and genetic memory work in concert with one another, or am I locked in a predetermined fate? That is the truth and what is a lie?"
For more information about the artist, please visit his website.
