Endgegner 0,5 – 2, 2023Spray paint, GHB, aceton, thinner, alcohol
Felix Kiessling's ongoing research into thermal photography and its capacity to unveil what remains invisible to the naked eye has led to a new series of paintings. Departing from conventional techniques that capture surface images, the series delves into the interior realms of objects and living beings. This pursuit is driven by the artist’s fascination with transcending exteriority and confronting the complexities of reality, being, definition, and temporality.Thermal imaging goes beyond surface calculations, offering a look at the inner workings of observed entities and their energetic pulses of atomic charge. In the paintings, the energetic pulses inside objects and living beings become substantiated. The observer encounters blurred interior realities, a manifestation of incorporeal phenomena that merge, overlay, and blur within the canvas. In this framework, the brain's construction of the visual world becomes akin to the calculation of light refraction on surfaces.Technically, the application of GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) directly on the canvases further dissolves the rigid lines and edges of lacquer or paint, allowing forms and colors to blend seamlessly. This dissolution is not merely an aesthetic choice but draws a parallel to thermal imaging, illustrating that forms lack hard shapes and are interconnected. The incorporation of GHB alludes to its recreational purpose as a drug that induces states of altered perception and allows users to momentarily escape reality.The works in the series result in composites of layered images, each imbued with its ephemeral significance, that encapsulate the concept of dissolution as emptiness; the dissolution of distinct shapes as they delve into the atomic nuclei surrounding us, and the subsequent idea that nothing is composed of tangible matter but rather charge.Bárbara Borges de Campos,
2024
