How did you develop your technique – was there an instinctive connection or did you struggle to master it for a while Well, in the beginning I used the tape only as a background for sketches I drew with a marker on glass. Once I started to play around with different layers of tape I figured out the potential of that material more and more. It took a couple of frustrating try outs but after a few weeks of practicing I developed a feeling for it and from then on it was pretty easy. Well, I still learn something new every day…
Is packing tape a perfect material to work with light and shadow Yes it is… In fact the subtleties and emotions are only created by light and shadow rather than by colors. That makes the tape interesting as a medium but also very different from any artwork I used to create before, working with water- or oil colors for example. Is there something magical about One has to think in graduations of one color transforming the banal and practical into a to create depth instead of using just different work of art paints. Oh yes, the magic moment for me is actually when I climb up a street lamp and fix my tape in front of the light. All of sudden this crappy, brown tape covered piece of glass transforms into something different and reveals the essence I was working on for so long. This transformation still fascinates me… the art is hidden in all these layers of tape and light brings it out of the box.
Much of your work has a 20’s film noire feel about it. How much did that sense of sepia that the packing tape creates drive that and how much did your feel for that aesthetic lead you to packing tape. The motives and scenarios I had in mind were there long before I used tape to put them into practice. So ultimately, it’s a crazy coincidence that the sepia expression the tapes come with gives my art an extra touch of nostalgia that fits perfectly with the thematics