A group of new work at Fort Sagres, Portugal, within the exhibition „Peregrinacao – a partir de las Paneis de Sao Vicente/Pilgrimage – from the Panels of San Vicente“
This piece is dedicated to Emile Akakbo from Togo, who made for me a beautiful crow mask, and all the artists around the world.
My gratitude to Drury Brennan, based in Berlin, who travelled to Sagres with us and made the beautiful calligraphy; to Babette Semmer assisting in the making, and Fico Artista who helped and performed the crow dance.
Indigo Saints (installation)Indigo Saints (installation); canvas painted with real indigo, part of the colonial exploits from overseasFor those who went round the mark stone of shameFirst participant in “Pilgrimage to Nowhere – 12 minutes a Slave”Handing over the certificate for taking part in “Pilgrimage to Nowhere – 12 minutes a Slave”Performing “The Shrowd of Saint Vincent covering the mark stone of shame”Covering the Mark Stone of Shame with the shrowd of St. Vincent“12 MInutes a Slave – A Pilgrimage to Nowhere” Opening ceremonial marchPerformance with Fico Artista and Bettina Semmer, shrowd covering mark stoneShrowds (installation); human body prints on canvasScriptures and Saint Vincent’s shrowd (installation at church de Dama de Graca, Fort Sagres); calligraphic works by Drury Peregrin Brennan; text by JacintoJacinto Palma Dias after signing the calligraphyDrury Brennan – Calligraphy: “I know not what tomorrow will bring” (Pessoa)
Planting seed mines for peace in a circle. In the back, the church containing the scripturesIndigo eye (centre of the secret circle of seeds)stranded Indigo Saints (pre-installation)Indigo Saints (pre-installation)
Five senses, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 290 x 190 cmdonuts and a yogi, 2016, acrylics on canvas, 210 x 200 cmspiral and two circles, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 210 cma whirl and a wind, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 210 cm
redgreen_veil, 200 x 300 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2015
multiple hearts, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 300 cmI am one and I want to be many, 200 x 300 cm, acrylic and chalk on canvas, 2016
Rajasthan file 1, 210 x 200 cm, oil on canvas 2016
These paintings are reflections of my recent research into body, mind, spirit and sacred traditions.
Ranging from prints of my own body to chaos-driven expressions, they also include images that I find in Indian and other traditional imagery of divinity. I do not wish to install hierarchies and favour one approach over the other. On the contrary, the aspects filter into one another, freeing me to form a new tradition of the „free fall“, parallel to abstract expressionism but less dogmatic. At the centre, one could detect a „truth of the present moment“ idea, that if one is totally present and free of conventional thinking, colour and shape will manifest themselves immediately due to an immediate necessity. This requires a frequent process of tying the work back to the body be it through hands and feet that touch the canvas, printing the body as a whole, or through knowledge and experience. Titled “In Pursuit of Chaos and Light”, these paintings are a continuation of the „Body, Gender, Fluidity“ series of earlier years.
bones of a woman, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 160 cmblcak sun, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 210 cmbowing to each other, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 200 cm
Chinnamasta, 220 x 200 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2015Eight breasted Jesus, 210 x 155 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2016A blue Goddess in the night, 210 x 175 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2016
MARIEM HASSAN 1958 – 2015
A tribute to the women of Western Sahara
Boujdour, Sahara refugee camps, Tindouf, Algeria 2015
Outside wall of Saharui Women’s UnionRight side (with the artist present)Left side, with Ismail Banan, artist and calligrapher
„Mariem Hassan 1958-2015“ is a mural, placed on the outside wall of the Union National de Mujeres Saharauis(the national women’s association of Western Sahara), which was planned and executed by myself, Bettina Semmer in November 2015 in Boujdour/refugee camps during the 9th edition of ARTifariti.
Divided in two by the entrance, the wall has a portrait of MH singing to the left of the gate, and five figures that portray her dancing during a concert on the right.
This division marks a duality of beauty: the beauty of outer shape and colour (the singer in a blue melfa, with pretty face and traditional head jewelry), and the beauty of movement or action, as seen in the dancing multitude of figures in black, on the right. One could also project a duality of Apollinian and Dionysian attitude into the two sides of the mural: wild dance, with hardly discernable features, on the right, and calm composed expression with Mother-Mary-like body language on the left.
This is not some kind of personality cult, nor the simple portraiture of MH, even though she is probably one of the finest examples in world music of a combination of tradition, political resistance and a unique voice, deserving far wider recognition than she already has. To paint her in the year when her life ended – prematurely caused by a terminal illness, that finally prompted her to return to her people in the refugee camps – would be reason enough. But there is more to it: I used the figurative representation of MH, together with words (This exile is too much – Morocco out – freee Sahara now!) and concrete shapes (the two big, intersectioned circles on the left as well as many smaller spheres on the right) to make up a postmodern, readable narrative in many facets.
The stylistic eclecticism gives room for imagination, for making connections and for free play of creative readingwhich is one of the most rewarding things in art/life. Last but not least, the mural serves as a huge opportunity to have one’s portrait taken there, should one agree with the words, thereby sending out a message to the world.
Colour has always been a great attractor, associated with experiences out of the normal everyday life (church windows, medieval art and it’s rare and costly pigments), with exultation, joy and lust for life. Specific colours have been said to have powers over the mind-body-unit, as in colour psychoogy and therapy.
The intersections of the larger circles on the left are inspired by Barbara Steppe, who in turn takes her inspiration from Otto Neurath, the inventor of graphics for statistics. They can be read as depictions of states of mind, of a country’s socio-economic order (or disorder), as arbitrary as the world’s division of riches, or merely as formal play. They are based on Mandalas with their power to focus the mind.
The priority was to make something understandable, readable, a common narrative combined with decorative elements, and also a tribute to the strength and beauty of Saharaui women. It would not occur to me to alienate the ladies who run the place, (Fatma, Hassina) so a meeting over the drafts preceeded the actual painting process. Occasionally, children from the nearby school and neighbourhood would assist, even in my absence adorning the wall with handprints and marking the faces with pink dots, making this piece complete. This fits in with my general approach of taking participation seriously, and incorporating into my work what I find in a place, and in its people.
I hope to contribute to a free Sahara where people can live in dignity, without being oppressed by a hostile regime, and where the Saharaui’s talent for a good life, as we as particpants know it, can blossom in a peaceful surrounding, in independance.
“Koether, Semmer, Trockel”, 1985, La Maquina Espanola, SevillaHeldInnen des Hedonismus/If it’s not baroque don’t fix it, Broken Graffiti No2 – curated by Petra Stegmann, with Neues Atelierhaus PanzerhalleHeldInnen des Hedonismus, Broken Graffiti no2, apart of “Faszination und Fassade”, Künstlerische Einmischung in PotsdamPleasure Plants – names in German and Latin (Pleasure Ground project by Neues Atelierhaus Panzerhalle)Das Gute Leben – Potsdam 2015, curated by Petra Stegmann, with Neues Atelierhaus PanzerhalleDie Mitte ist der Rand, DAT Galerie Berlin, 2014A stunning left hook, 2014, at SEMMER BERLINENDE, Kunstverein Schwerin, 2012Prinzip Collage, SEMMER BERLIN 2012-13Willkür mit Kontrast, 2010, Transient, Berlin, curated with Robert Mueller-MoaWhere are the disappeared Saharauis? 2010 in TifaritiGalerie Crone, Jubiläumsausstellung, 2009“Still”, installation of portraits with historical portrait, Club von Berlin, 2008Family EarthQuake, 2008 at Gallery 33, with Maria Linares, Ina Bruchlos, Ana Maria Millan and Andres Sandoval“Painting Factory”, Assisted Painting SEries and workshops, 2001 Spacex Gallery, Exeter
Heilige Mutter weg-da, 210 x 155 cm, oil on canvas, 2015Erde im Chaos, 2014, oil on canvas, 150 x 160cmDefining good and bad, 2014, oil on canvas, 150 x 105 cmTraveling, 2014, oil on canvas, 210 x 150cmking king country, 2014, oil on canvas, 95 x 95 cmVicious Cycle, 155 x 210 cm, oil on canvas, 2016hystericalhousewife, 150 x 100 cm, oil on canvas, 2015From Moscow with Hysteria, 2015, oil on canvas, 155 x 100 cmJibby Bean, 2014, Oil on canvas, 210 x 150 cm
The cynicism of freedom, 2014, oil on canvas, 150 x 210 cmCaught red handed, 2014, oil on canvas, 200 x 155 cmA Stunning Left Hook, 2014, oil on canvas, 200x175cmModern Melancholia, 2014, oil on canvas, 75x60cmDrehung in China, 2014, oil on canvas, 200 x 155cmSchluss mit Mobben und Dissen, 2014, Oil on canvas, 200x155cm
Chastity belt, or what you resist will persist, 2010, mixed media on canvas, 190 x 210cmHanding the keys of yourself to a Black Hole, 2009, acrylics on canvas, 120x130cmGirls at the age of 13, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 80 cm (see also the Schlachtensee series)monkey girl, 2013, oil on canvas, 90x95cmPainting surgery, 2000, oil on canvas, 90×105 cm.another typical male, 2014, oil on canvas, 50 x 50cma twist in nothing, 2014, oil on canvas, 80x80cma blackness inside, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 155 x 190 cmorigin of the world 2, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cmorigin of the world, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cmdown the waterfall in bondage, 2014, oil on canvas, 200 x 155 cmwitch’s probe, 2014, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cmlegging up, 2013, oil on canvas, 200 x 160 cmInside the mother and child womb, 2000, oil on canvas, 160 x 120 cmAnother world, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 220 x 190 cmDeposition, 2007, oilBody brain, after Zurbarán, 2008, Watercolour on paper, 120×150 cmlarge “abstract”, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 220 x190cm
Untitled (B. with Spaghetti) from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmPortrait of B., from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 210 cmThe Rule, from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmThe Rukle, from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmThe Cube Projection, from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmIn the Picture of the Pot , from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmOf Course, from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmUntitled (B. on the beach) from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 210 cmSomething boiling, from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmRED, from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 210 cmUntitled (abstract 1) from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmUntitled (abstract 2) from the Assisted Painting series), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmUntitled (abstract 3) from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmUntitled (abstract 5) from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmPerhaps by means of gestures, from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmUntitled (abstract 7) from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmFaces, from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 230 x 300 cmMonkey squared, from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 290 cmSteam comes out, from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmRed, Yellow and Blue, from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cmTransition, from the Assisted Painting series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cm
Green Lake, from the Assisted Painting Series, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 210 x 240cm