Moskau. Umsteigen. In einem Flughafenrestaurant sitzen. Einen Salat essen. Auf die Uhr schauen. Die Zeit vergeht nicht. Die Zeit ist um eine Stunde verschoben. Müdigkeit macht sich bemerkbar. Mein Blick wandert zu dem Fernsehbildschirm. Erstarrt. Bilder voller Gewalt. Eine Reportage über einen Bürgerkrieg. Ich sehe zwei Regierungschefs sich an die Weltöffentlichkeit wenden. Ich denke, dies…
DetailsBin ich doch noch so voller Unruhe! Meine Koffer sind gepackt. Mit Michael, der mich nach Shanghai und Beijing begleiten wird, treffe ich mich morgen. Freude, soll mein Grundgefühl sein, beschwöre ich mich selbst! Freude! Meine unruhigen Gedanken und Erinnerungen, all die vielen unterschiedlichen Gefühle hinter mich lassen, von Freiheit zu träumen, die in der…
DetailsLadies and Gentlemen, sometimes, working up a speech in a foreign language can change one’s perspective of the object. In a way, this is comparable to the act of transplanting a painting to another place, to another country. As I was thinking about how to introduce the Berlin painter Sebastian Heiner to a London audience, a curious thing happened. I’ve known Sebastian for seven years now; I’ve followed his career and have the privelege of living with one of his works.
Details当我谈及我发言的题目是要同时谈论”姿态”这个词的单数和复数的时候，其实我指的是两种截然不同的看法，正是领会塞巴斯蒂安•海纳绘画作品让我产生了这种看法：一方面是”绘画的姿态”，即手和整个身体在绘画过程中的移动；另一方面则是那些清楚的或者带有暗示性的姿态，它们出现在很多他的作品之中。
DetailsWhen talking of «gesturing» and «gestures» in the title of my speech I mean two very different aspects which this term conveys to me in Sebastian Heiner’s painting. On one hand gesturing while painting meaning the hand’s or the whole bodies’ movement in the act of painting and on the other hand the revealing and referring gestures that appear in many of his paintings.
Details作品中的红颜色是舞台上情节发展的唯一的颜色，它是女舞蹈演员演出服装的颜色，那个女人想表达的是一个春天的牺牲者，在她癫狂的舞蹈动作中她从性别之中逃离出来，并且做出了自我的牺牲，而其他的人 – 男人还有女人 – 一动不动地站在背后, 好像在出神的看死亡的舞蹈。
DetailsThe red in the painting is the only color of the happenings on stage, it is the color of the dancer’s clothes who is centered in the spring sacrifice. She tears out her sexual organ in a frenzied act and sacrifices herself while the other men as well as women standing in the background watch the death dance magnetized.
DetailsIn works like «Sunrise», «Bambushain» and «Night Lights», Sebastian Heiner depicts a shift of focus toward Asiatic culture, an a process of engagement with it.
DetailsIn an interview in 2001 Sebastian Heiner stated he would most like to be the cat from Alice in Wonderland: «I’d grin then disappear again into red oil paint without a trace!» Three years later he took off. Not quite as quick as the Cheshire Cat but since 2004 the artist from Berlin has been living and working in Beijing for six or seven months a year. This has not however turned Sebastian Heiner’s imagery upside down.
DetailsA note is struck; the painter stands on a stage. Rapt in concentration, his thoughts linger for a moment between the primed canvas and the music. Then Sebastian Heiner reaches for a brush. He dips it into the white bucket of paint and, with quick strokes, sketches a figure whose existence is only short-lived. Later in the process, before the eyes of those in the audience, its contours will vanish under layers of paint, covered over by strokes made with a brush or twig broom. In between, the artist even uses his arm as a painting tool or fly swatter.
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