Artist – Sebastian Biskup
Untitled, 2015
ROCKELMANN &
Schönleinstraße 5
Berlin 10967
Germany
T: 49 1785230833
E: alex@rockelmann-and.com
W: www.rockelmann-and.com
Utilizing strictly executed methods of abstraction and reduction, Sebastian Biskup seeks to reveal the elements that determine our viewing habits, as well the relationships between them. The basic question for him is how the gaze is oriented within the space of the image, how our perceptions are influenced by composition, layout, and design – how these produce meaning even before figurative and textual elements. In Biskup’s video work he develops a unique visual language in which a flood of commercial images are manipulated to an abstraction.
In his approach, Biskup makes no distinction between high culture and vernacular detritus: masterpieces of painting from different eras, tabloids, advertisements, and TV shows all serve him equally as source materials. By analyzing and averaging their hues and surfaces, summarizing and breaking them down into simple geometric shapes or mere outlines, he insists on flattening the two-dimensional space of the image until the illusion of depth and its components’ targeted optical evocation of atmosphere become evident.