trees and light

some leipzig images, from the woods

Neo Rauch

Neo Rauch (born 18 April 1960, in Leipzig, East Germany) is a German artist whose monumental paintings mine the intersection of his personal history with the politics of industrial alienation. His work reflects the influence of socialist realism, and owes a debt to Surrealists Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte, although Rauch hesitates to align himself with surrealism. He studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, and he lives in Leipzig (Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei), Germany and works as the principal artist of the New Leipzig School.


"When I first agreed to do the Met exhibition, I thought about a way of working that would be about the nature of a museum. But straight away I realized that I was much more interested in those "visions from the Witches Circle" in my studio than I was in coming up with things in a purely thematic way. Calling them "visions" reflects my personality—they precede inspiration and spring from the moment when internal images appear at the prompting of intellectual decisions. I have no choice but to accept everything that I discover in this way" - Rauch

there is no where to make things

Today I cycled round the city trying to find a building where I am meant to have a studio. When I found it I did not have a studio. I have a class meeting next tuesday. I'm not going though. The last one made no sense. I don't want to be in the class anyway. There is no where to make things. So I am making things on a video camera. But it's not really good enough. I saw a students work, he hid in trees to see if anyone noticed as they walked past below. People don't look up that often.

reunification

It's stern and cold here. In the quarter where I live, (Holbeinstrasse area) the buildings are old, basic, and have coal burning ovens instead of central heating. The streets are all old, the enormous trees are too. In another part of the city there are newer buildings and huge estates of empty factories. There are miles of canals, isolated steel bridges with english words scratched into them, rickety pavements with thick tarmac squeezed into the gaps. At least a hundred blocks of empty buildings, cracked stain glass windows and cellars full of soot. The streets are so quiet. Even in the middle of the day I wonder where everyone is. Either people stay indoors a lot or the houses are empty.

Yesterday was the aniversary of the reunification of East and West Germany. My new flat mates had a party. All the men sat in the kitchen getting drunk whilst the girls sat in another room and smoked cigarettes.