Matthias JUNG

HOUSES

Collages have fascinated me ever since I was a child. It all began in the photo lab of my father. With scissors and glue, the first fantastic buildings were made. Basically, I don’t do anything differently nowadays. I cut apart my photos and make them into new shapes. The digital possibilities in the realm of image processing have led many to be artistically impressed with Photoshop. I don’t want that. The computer program is only a tool. It should not determine the content. My pictures should reflect reality. I am always amazed at how architectural details can evoke certain associations and feelings. This is how a latticed window conveys coziness; one might even say it is soulful. Framework is soothing, sometimes touching. Antennas have something sinister about them. They point to something outside the picture. Concrete is cold and foreign – but maybe interesting for just that reason. The composition of the individual elements correlates to a logic, as if in a dream. Basically, dreams are collages. In order for my work to function properly, I also have to consider design rules. Thus, the relationship between order/disorder and homogeneity/ diversity must agree. A building has to first be stable and credible before I can add some “disorder”, to let it fly for example. One such disorder refers to another, only hinting at reality. I weave, so to speak, spiritual realities into everyday things.

SIGNS AND ANTIMATTER

It‘s nothing short of amazing that we‘re able to create a coherent world from the confusing array of sensations and memories. There‘s an Artist at work in us, assembling snippets of reality into intricate collages we then call the world. Working with collages gives me the chance to consciously follow this process. I take pieces of reality, combine them and watch as my inner self tries to make meaningful connections. In doing so, I always need to put myself in a state of „lucid dreaming“. Collage is a technique that very closely approximates our everyday construction of reality. I have been creating collages since I was a child. First with glue and scissors, then later in my father‘s photo laboratory, and now digitally. For me, it‘s a wonderful way of revealing inner realities. I‘m not interested in creating perfect Photoshop worlds. What‘s important to me is revealing inner truths. I only start a picture once I have the idea of a composition. For me, it‘s about the preciousness and vulnerability of the human being, who looks out from his „cultural island“ onto a cold and indifferent cosmos. It‘s basically about existential metaphors.