STUDIO DIARY #4
Hi there,
here is a new update from my studio. Enjoy reading!
oooo
STUDIO AMBIENCE
I have been very busy since the last Studio Diary back in August. In that entry, I wrote about the heatwaves, and reading it just now, I notice how much I seem to be romanticising them while turning on the heating in the studio today.
On Monday, I arrived to find the studio at 15 degrees, but when I tried to turn on the heating, the boiler remained silent. It took three days to get it repaired. This morning, I turned up the dial and heard the boiler ignite – a sound so familiar after 10 years in this space. It even features in the sound installation I created for my 2022 solo show Samples of Sanity, which you can find here.
As usual, I follow my studio morning routine by making myself a cappuccino and listening to music. Today, I put on Carmen Villain’s new record Memoria. One track fades away while a rhythmic knock remains in the room. It continues as the next track sets in, almost perfectly blending into the soundscape. When I can still hear it two tracks later, I press pause. It takes me a second to realise that the sound is coming from the blinds, gently swinging in the rising heat and knocking against the window frame.
Hours later, it's still audible, and I'm not quite sure whether I like it or not. I might record it and turn it into a soundscape.
xxxx
OLD ENOUGH TO RUN
Back in July, I had an email from Kourosh in my inbox. He told me he was about to open a new restaurant with friends and would love to hang some of my paintings there. We made an appointment for the following Tuesday to talk details. So far, 2026 has been a very slow year for many, myself included, so I was very much looking forward to this potential opportunity. I remember spending the rest of the week, and even the weekend, further developing my DISPLACEMENT system.
On Monday morning, I woke up to sunshine and, after working through two weekends in a row, felt like taking a day off from the studio. I got on my bike and headed to the art supply shop to buy a can of the new blue I had used for BLUE FRIDAY, which I wrote about in my last Studio Diary. On the way back, I visited my friends at Studio Beton and had lunch with them. I told them about my meeting on Tuesday, when they reminded me that it was already Tuesday.
I checked my calendar app, thinking they were joking, but when I saw the red dot on TUE, I immediately felt an internal heatwave flooding through my body. I had a minor panic attack as I turned on my phone and saw multiple missed calls from Kourosh.
I regulated my nervous system by breathing. I realised that by working through the weekend and Monday, I had completely lost my sense of time. I was almost too embarrassed to call back. I took a couple more breaths. Still shaking, I tried to explain what had happened. Instead of being angry, Kourosh laughed, and I immediately felt relieved. We arranged a new appointment for later that week, and I set numerous reminders.
Later that day, I reflected on why I had mixed up the days and why my nervous system had reacted the way it did. It has always been very important to me that people can count on me, but within the past year, similar things have happened three times. Two years ago, I started taking more time to get to know myself better, question behavioural patterns, and understand myself better. I learned about my boundaries, what it feels like to be overwhelmed, and how to recognise it earlier. In practice, I'm still having trouble recognising when I'm overworked. One of the things my brain seems to do is simply forget to check the calendar before going to bed.
The meeting went great, and Kourosh told me more about their plans to take over the former Florianihof and call it DAS DRITTL. It's right around the corner from my studio.
The day before the soft opening, I brought over a selection of works from my Samples of Sanity series. While I was installing them, boxes of glasses were being delivered, a handyman was installing lights in one room, another person was sharing the ladder with me, and the chefs were preparing meals and bringing out samples. The place was buzzing, but no one seemed overwhelmed. Every member of the team was excited about the opening after putting so much time into preparing everything.
When I left around 7 pm, there was still a lot to be done. When I came back the next day, everything was tidy, and a delicious smell was coming from the kitchen. Kourosh told me the team had stayed well past midnight. The guests got to taste dishes from the menu, and everything was delicious.
A few days later, I started sketching for the permanent canvas. All the finished artworks I had already installed could be purchased, but DAS DRITTL had also commissioned one huge canvas that would remain permanently installed. To connect the artwork to the restaurant, I asked the team to send me photos of their dishes so I could reference some of them in the painting.
We agreed on dimensions of 3.5 × 1.4 m, and I soon realised how difficult it would be to find stretcher bars that size. While I waited for them to be shipped from Germany, I finished the sketches. After a full day of stretching the canvas, I finally started painting.
Over the following week, as I added layer after layer, my excitement grew. I couldn't wait to see how the artwork would fit into the space. When I hung the painting at the end of September, a wave of joy rushed through my body. It fit perfectly, and everyone was super happy with it.
From now on, if you'd like to arrange a studio visit, we'll meet at my atelier to look at my new paintings and talk about my current artistic practice. Afterwards, we'll walk around the corner to DAS DRITTL, where you can see the rest of the available artworks installed in the restaurant, with the option of staying for dinner.
Let me know if this sounds interesting to you, and we'll arrange a date.
////
VOLANS
Over the years, numerous people have asked me whether I also have landscape-format paintings available. I've only painted a handful, and whenever I did, they sold quite quickly.
After spending countless hours working on the AV side of DISPLACEMENT in 1920 × 1080 px earlier this year, I planned to work on what eventually became VOLANS. This painting holds a special place in my heart for several reasons. One of them is that I've introduced moving images – hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animations – into my process.
Up until this point, I had been using single drawings as inputs for my network. In summer, while working on the AV side, I felt that moving images would work much better when combined with sound. So I started making frame-by-frame animations of objects I like and linking parameters such as sound volume to the playback speed.
I loved what I was seeing and wanted to bring this idea into the sketching process of DISPLACEMENT. This way, I can use any sound in real time and let it modulate the image.
I placed a microphone above my desk to pick up the ambient sounds of me simply existing in the studio while watching the animations come to life. I mapped colour changes in individual layers to my MIDI controller, and suddenly, the sketching process felt more like playing a video game. Whenever I liked what I was seeing, I saved a frame into a folder dedicated to my sketches. Experiencing how well this process worked, and how excited I was about it, I couldn't help but let out a few whoops of joy.
The specific animation I used for VOLANS was a 360° animation of a sculpture Z had made. It consists of slim wooden sticks. By using a textured brush for the animation and feeding it through a feedback loop in TouchDesigner, the software in which I developed DISPLACEMENT, the visuals become very organic and ever-changing.
Another reason I love this painting is that I finally mixed a new blue I'm really excited about.
Two years ago, I felt it was time to change the lighter blue I'd been using for years. I mixed a new one that I liked better, but after working with it for a while, I realised I hadn't quite reached the end of my search. In summer, I did a couple of colour-mixing sessions and even painted BLUE FRIDAY with a new blue, but it turned out to be too dark after all. Before starting VOLANS, I did another mixing session. The new blue contains less yellow pigment, is super vibrant, and works perfectly with my other colours.
VOLANS is now available. If you'd like to see it in person, don't hesitate to reply, and let's arrange a studio visit!
I've had a couple of studio visits lately where I could give a more intimate insight into the image-making process I've been writing about above. Afterwards, we can head over to DAS DRITTL for a drink, where you can see all the work I have on display there.
++++
SOUND DIARY #4
Today's Sound Diary came as a surprise. I started writing about the studio ambience on Friday but got interrupted mid-sentence. Before leaving the studio, I ended up quickly recording the knocking blinds on my phone. On Saturday morning, I started building a soundscape with the recording. It's at a point where I like what I'm hearing, but it still needs some work.
On Sunday evening, Z and I decided to light the fireplace at home. We'd just ordered a different kind of wood than in previous years. As we watched the fire dance, we suddenly heard a high-pitched sound coming from the wood. I immediately recorded it with my phone. It sounded like a tiny siren.
"I wonder what it would sound like pitched down a few octaves and drenched in reverb," I said.
"Why don't you get your sampler and try it out straight away?" Z replied.
I'd just installed speakers in the living room so we could listen to records while gazing into the fire. I couldn't be bothered to get the computer out and properly load the recording onto the sampler, so I simply held my phone close to the sampler's built-in microphone.
As I zoned in on sending different parts of the siren and the crackles through a series of effects, Z made herself comfortable under a blanket. Creamzy, one of our cats, joined her.
After an hour of knob-twisting, I felt I'd added enough modulation for the composition to run on its own. I made myself a cup of coffee and went back to watching the fire, listening to the ever-changing, overlapping frequencies.
I turned around and Z had fallen asleep.
I listened to the soundscape for another hour while making s'mores in the fireplace. Eventually, I got up and did a few chores in the kitchen, leaving the sound running in the background. When Z woke up hours later, she told me the spontaneous sound bath had been so relaxing that she couldn't help but fall asleep to it.
So I decided to record a bit of it today and use it for this Sound Diary.
Sit back and relax.
||||
I hope you found this update interesting. If you have any questions about anything I've written – especially my current artistic process, which can be a bit confusing from the outside, I guess – don't hesitate to ask. I'll get back to you.
I hope you have a cosy start to the winter season.
XOXO,
Add a comment: