Zeichnungen für Kinder und Erwachsene [Drawings for Children and Adults] (2011-2020)

Regarded up close, the seven-large format drawings of the series reveal a large number of precisely drawn circles by hand. These dots, filled in with even cross-hatching, are of different sizes but always maintain the same distance to each other. This creates patterns of dots of different densities, resulting in various shapes and areas with distinguishable gray values. If one slowly moves away from the drawings, the abstract dot grids become representational images – a naked woman with a baby in her arms, two boys in sensual affection for each other.

These are graphic readaptations of double-page photographs from a sex education book, first published in 1974 (published by Evangelischer Jugenddienst-Verlag in Germany). The dark vertical bars in the center of the drawings expose themselves as shadows of the covenant of opened book pages. This once vehemently discussed and still controversial book, stands on the one hand for a contribution to a progressive view of sexuality, in whose tradition many still consider themselves today. On the other hand, a fatal transfiguration of child sexuality can be found here, that must be criticized today as part of the debate about sexual violence against children.

The peculiarity of the series is to translate sexuality, as it was understood in the 1970s, into drawings without following its paradigm of the explicit: due to the chosen ›rough grid‹ we see images that appear vague and almost blurry. If one approaches the drawing – surrenders to a voyeuristic impulse – the motif tilts back into a space of infinite dots, refusing the detailed view.

Notice: Please note that reproductions of the drawings in case of publication may only be made in detail.

7 drawings, Documentary Ink on paper, 222 x 142 cm [87.4 x 55.9 inch]