PHILOSOPHY
Bernd Heinrich
by Imogen Corlette
One of the most striking and intriguing elements of the new
landscape work being produced in Australia at the moment
in the shift towards treating the canvas as the landscape
rather than using it simply to represent or depict. In this way,
the artist is re-cast as ' toiler the earth' as opposed to its renderer.
The application of paint, bracken, metal, glazes, found objects
etc the two dimensional canvas therefore represents
construction in its own right.
In these works, the Australian landscape is reborn, not as a
colonial outpost, surveyor's plot, picturesque sign of leisure/work,
ownership, but as a conceptual and aesthetic "playground"
for the artist's imagination. Bernd is one such artist, whose
work are, quintessentially, contemporary Australian landscape,
with a look that is simultaneously haunted, scarred, entrancing,
lucid and resonating.
The conceptual base of Bernd's work is highly esoteric.
The sense of secrecy in the images is strong, with the landscape
abstracted to the point where depth, focus and form are almost,
obscured - and where the earth appears to harbor secrets and
symbols which point outwards to realms beyond the canvas.
This ghostly aesthetic has undertones of Fred Williams and
Arthur Boyd whose work has also featured an unsettling sense
of the mysterious in Australian landscape and outback.
Bernd's gestural process of constructing the images also bears
a somewhat tortured likeness to the more abstract works of
Brett Whiteley.
Bernd's works are both highly physical (in the complex and
rigorous nature of their construction) and highly esoteric.
The result is a body of work which makes a well grounded and
stimulating contribution to both "Australian Landscape" as an
art historical genre, and to "Contemporary Landscape"
as a vital element of current international artistic practice.
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ARTIST STATEMENT
an inner experience of freedom and passion not restricted by
conventions or boundaries.
In my journey as an artist I am inspired to create from the
inside out to express my fascination and passion in combining
my inner world with reality.
“Playgrounds in time and space” are my re-occurring themes.
Divided and separated by space, lines, images, symbols, forms
and shapes – composed like a sheet of music in the harmony
of a visual symphony – to reveal my inner world.
My canvases are often heavily textured, deeply scarred and
evoke the feeling of being sculptured.
Often I use found objects, architectural symbols,
silkscreen images or find it necessary to include written
statements or pieces of poetry to underline or human presence.