Die Basis des Make-Up

Drawing (241) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"International nonsense: the fact that Hollywood is acting as if it were 'left-wing' and votes 'Democrat' presupposes a considerable degree of emotional confusion in the face of the range of products being offered there. The permanent repetitions and re-stagings of visions of the apocalypse from which we are saved by the actions of individual superheroes and leaders show no shortage of fascistic ideologies. It is thus no wonder that a well-known American avant-gardist wished for director Spielberg to spend time in a gas chamber 'without a happy ending' after watching Schindler’s List. The casting of superhero roles and models also leaves a lot to be desired in terms of racism. The fact that Ashley Judd went to court because such a superhero role was stolen from her – along with the clearly essential remuneration – because she didn’t take part in sexist casting couch customs also won’t change anything, even if fifty percent of these roles are given to women. The only thing that would then be more fairly distributed is stupidity." (From: arsenal, februar 20, where it was falsely numbered Nr. 238 and published with drawing Nr. 238).

(1984) 

Drawing (66) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Revolutionary nonsense, banging its head through a wall: in the face of the crocodile tears at all the beloved 'left-wingers' such as Mahler, Rabehl, and Elsässer having strayed from the righteous left-wing path, it should be added here that none of the mentioned would themselves say that their views have taken an about turn. Maybe we can just make allowances for the fact that they’ve always been what they are? While one lot wanted to conjure up the revolution by first bombing a fascist state into existence which the people would then revolt against, (if only one knew which people it was supposed to be back then), the other lot chose the legalistic path of an election to roll over the state. A march through the institutions in a conspiratorial manner and a pressing demand to (now we finally have it) be loved by the We are the People people. A Ponzi scheme of unfounded political promises of being able to break up capitalism by way of racial nationalism whose logic must necessarily end in racist murder and robbery operations once again." (From: arsenal, january 20; where it was falsely described as Nr. 241).

(1984)

Zeichnung (238) aus DIE BASIS DES MAKE-UP

Drawing (362) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"'Economic' funding nonsense: if only that were the case. What’s funded instead is a caricature of business life, which is celebrated by the handing over of a one-square-meter large check in the one case in a hundred in which the invested capital actually generates a return, so that a new lot of dough can be bagged up for the next load of junk. What’s funded is scripts that are formalized through and through or based on what the 'wider' public allegedly wants to see, but then doesn’t actually do so, because they’ve learned from US television in the meantime what a film can be outside of pussy-footed stupidity. A transparent 'as if' mechanism that can be used to put one over on cultural politicians who suffer from a need to justify themselves. Anyone so ashamed of funding culture should perhaps just let it be, or at least not call it 'culture'. In that sense, the term 'economy' is the right one once again, as it stands for much that doesn’t pay and a sphere in which shady wheeling and dealing can be carried out unchecked." (From: arsenal, march 20).

(1983) 

Drawing (203) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Following a series of nightmares, a morning like no other. A decapitated horseman of the apocalypse riding on a toothbrush, which juts out of the window of a house in the south, with a yucca plant next to it. I’m sliding down the left side of the image, as photographed by Rüdiger Neumann in Denmark in 1968. A propeller juts into the image from above, like a fan. Between its blades, positive and negative bolts of lightning travel upwards and downwards. The sentences I scribbled down in the night thereto were: 'We don’t know what penetrates our bodies. But we have an idea what remains stuck in them. Our biggest worry is the synchronization of feelings, which distributes an unbearable degree of negativity and positivity. Don’t tell anyone about the time you go to sleep. Unconsciousness is the inviolable location and state of your personality. It stems from a language that speaks itself. That is what penetrates us. Any attempt made to penetrate it in turn is doomed to failure.'“ (From: arsenal, december 19).

(1996) 

Drawing (564) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Following a series of nightmares, a morning like no other. A decapitated horseman of the apocalypse riding on a toothbrush, which juts out of the window of a house in the south, with a yucca plant next to it. I’m sliding down the left side of the image, as photographed by Rüdiger Neumann in Denmark in 1968. A propeller juts into the image from above, like a fan. Between its blades, positive and negative bolts of lightning travel upwards and downwards. The sentences I scribbled down in the night thereto were: 'We don’t know what penetrates our bodies. But we have an idea what remains stuck in them. Our biggest worry is the synchronization of feelings, which distributes an unbearable degree of negativity and positivity. Don’t tell anyone about the time you go to sleep. Unconsciousness is the inviolable location and state of your personality. It stems from a language that speaks itself. That is what penetrates us. Any attempt made to penetrate it in turn is doomed to failure.'" (From: arsenal, december 19).

(1996) 

Drawing (451) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"From the annals of an institutional constipation. An ordination at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome floats upside down in the sky and disappears into a hard to make out distance. In front of it, a hastily repaired buttplug that resembles a darning mushroom with a thimble together with a drawstring made of excrement that is sticking out of a ring of protective paper to the top left, wrapping itself around the neck of a human figure like a stole. Parts of a baroque parapet can be seen on the top right-hand side of the image, with a hand making either defensive or stroking movements to the bottom right enclosed within a square. Two American soldiers in the First Gulf War stand watch, guns in hands; blades of grass sway in the wind. A person is impaled on a broomstick with outstretched arms and feet in such a way that the pole protrudes from the top of the skull. A lesson in object teaching: the figure’s different areas of skin have been painted variously black and white on the body for illustrative purposes in relationship to the accompanying dorsal vertebras." (From: arsenal, november 19).

(1996)

Drawing (70) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Three birch trees by the Baltic Sea beach and there, in the distance, on the other side of the bay, the lighthouse at Kiel-Bülk in 1966. The bronze over-sized head of an Egyptian ibis sitting on a wooden construction has been washed up on the beach. In the foreground on the right, the black silhouette of flowers from Heister Park in Laguna Beach, California. They used to grow where the pelicans would glide along the escarpment to the Pacific next to me. A space ship in the shape of a cowbell powered by unknown means floats over the scenery. It is to be assumed that its extraterrestrial energy fields created this jumble of apparitions of earthly objects and places. Born near the North Sea, the dreary splashing of the Baltic shore remains foreign to me to this day, although forests that border the sea, like they do in Bornholm, do exert a magical pull on me. In the meantime Laguna Beach has burnt down. The fire ate its way down the Laguna Hills, driven on by the east wind, clearing the way right down to the sea. I see no way of returning there and have no desire to do so anyway." (From: arsenal, october 19).

(2007) 

Drawing (257) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"From the annals of an institutional constipation. An ordination at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome floats upside down in the sky and disappears into a hard to make out distance. In front of it, a hastily repaired buttplug that resembles a darning mushroom with a thimble together with a drawstring made of excrement that is sticking out of a ring of protective paper to the top left, wrapping itself around the neck of a human figure like a stole. Parts of a baroque parapet can be seen on the top right-hand side of the image, with a hand making either defensive or stroking movements to the bottom right enclosed within a square. Two American soldiers in the First Gulf War stand watch, guns in hands; blades of grass sway in the wind. A person is impaled on a broomstick with outstretched arms and feet in such a way that the pole protrudes from the top of the skull. A lesson in object teaching: the figure’s different areas of skin have been painted variously black and white on the body for illustrative purposes in relationship to the accompanying dorsal vertebras." (From: arsenal, november 19).

(1996) 

Drawing (453) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Three birch trees by the Baltic Sea beach and there, in the distance, on the other side of the bay, the lighthouse at Kiel-Bülk in 1966. The bronze over-sized head of an Egyptian ibis sitting on a wooden construction has been washed up on the beach. In the foreground on the right, the white silhouette of flowers from Heister Park in Laguna Beach, California. They used to grow where the pelicans would glide along the escarpment to the Pacific next to me. A space ship in the shape of a cowbell powered by unknown means floats over the scenery. It is to be assumed that its extraterrestrial energy fields created this jumble of apparitions of earthly objects and places. Born near the North Sea, the dreary splashing of the Baltic shore remains foreign to me to this day, although forests that border the sea, like they do in Bornholm, do exert a magical pull on me. In the meantime Laguna Beach has burnt down. The fire ate its way down the Laguna Hills, driven on by the east wind, clearing the way right down to the sea. I see no way of returning there and have no desire to do so anyway." (From: arsenal, october 19).

(2007)