Black1
by Volker Behrend Peters
a photo taken of drawings made with color pencils, shredded with photoshop, morphed and shredded again and again using all the artifacts of different programs, finding something not searched for
Volker Behrend Peters
My work has no goal.
So I don't need to worry about the path.
The path is the goal, this Zen calender-truism,
has already led many astray.
For more than 20 years now, I've been working almost exclusively with the special properties of wax in all its manifestations. It offers me the possibilities that come closest to my intention. I was already working with wax in the 1970s. The results are always surprising for me too.
Wax doesn't have to dry, it cools down and is solid immediately, there is no need to wait, it can be applied layer by layer and thus build up into those sculptural forms, the characteristic of my work.
The fragility of the results is essential, during the process and later on as the final work, handling them requires increased, differentiated attention.
By processing the photos on the computer, it became clear that working with accidentally chance is also possible here on the screen. The various programs have limitations that can be reached quickly, the artifacts of the tools, its usually unwanted results, form the basis of my digital work shown here.
I was born in 1951 in Blexen, by the time a small fishing village on the coast in northern Germany.
Between 1968 and 1970 I was a volunteer in an advertising agency because after passing the one-week entrance exam at the art school in Bremen, I was told I was too young, had to wait a year and let others take precedence. In 1970 the art school had become a university, so all the students had to take college for arts and graphics, with training in printing processes and photography, then finally in 1972 study of painting at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Bremen. After four semesters, the very politicized atmosphere at the time became too much for me, I accepted an offer and spent two years traveling in Asia and Europe.
In 1979, at the insistence of a friend and because I couldn't leave art,
I resumed my studies. 1982 I graduated from painting studies with a diploma from the Hochschule für Gestaltung, today HfK, in Bremen.
I live and work in Munich since 1985,
since 1978 I have had exhibitions at least once a year.