Smeared Graffiti, Hidden Herzchen, 2022
inkjet print on paper
100 x 100 x 5 cm
unique



Smeared Graffiti, Hidden Mousey, 2026
inkjet print on paper
100 x 100 x 5 cm
unique



Smeared Graffiti, Mossy Bronze, 2026
inkjet print on paper
100 x 100 x 5 cm
unique



Smeared Graffiti, Golden Fibula, 2026
inkjet print on paper
100 x 100 x 5 cm
unique

This work began with the digital skin of an object.

In 3D modelling, every object carries a surface image known as a texture map. The object's exterior is unfolded into a flat plane, painted, and then wrapped back around the form. For this work, I extracted the texture of an industrial oil tank from an earlier animation about longing and belonging. Instead of returning the image to its original object, I enlarged it into a one-metre square and began to manipulate it independently.

Through digital smearing, blurring, and displacement, the surface gradually lost its descriptive function. What once explained an object became an image in its own right.

The resulting composition hovers between abstraction and recognition. Industrial residues, liquid gestures, graffiti-like markings, and fragments of representation drift across the picture plane without settling into a stable meaning. The title refers to this uncertain state. A heart may or may not be present. Recognition becomes a projection rather than a fact.

I have always been interested in the strange autonomy of surfaces. We often assume that appearances reveal an underlying truth, yet many of the images that shape contemporary life operate independently from their origins. In this work, the surface detaches itself from the object that produced it and begins a second existence. What remains is a field of atmosphere, memory, and suggestion, where meaning is continuously deferred.