I came across to the oil shale rock in 1999, since over 25 years, and working with it artistically to this day. I have also added soil, which I usually remove myself and, like the rock pigments, process into paint. I have been getting the oil shale rock from Bad Boll (near Göppingen) for many years, where there is a shale quarry where the material is extracted and processed into a fine pigment to be used as fango in the wellness clinic in Bad Boll. Due to its history and age (200-180 million years old), the rock contains numerous valuable, healing minerals and substances. In 1999 I had my first small residency in the slate quarry in Bad Boll for three months and started working with the stone as a sculptor. I created forms that I unfortunately didn’t immediately capture photographically at the time; they disappeared when the excavator came and removed this part of the upper layer. However, I have taken numerous photographs of the stone itself and the slate quarry, which I have embedded in various exhibitions over the years of my artistic activity. The (analog) photograph above shows one of them.
During my art studies (1998-2001), I already had the opportunity to exhibit in empty factory buildings and to present my material works in different ways. In a first large group exhibition in 2000 with the title walking on art at the Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, the work Schieferstreifen was shown for the first time, which I have exhibited in further places over the years. In my final exhibition in 2001 at the Natural History Museum in Reutlingen, the work JURA SCHICHTUNG can be seen, with a text by Barbara Karwatzki, the director of the museum, to be found in the catalog SCHICHTEN 2001-2005 and on the website.
In the meantime, I am showing the photos of the quarry together with objects, drawings with earth and rock and photographs that were taken in connection with the photographic work Demolition Olga Areal 2015/2016. More information will following soon.
Photo Credit: Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb
Quarry Bad Boll, 2000,32 x 42 cm, framed
Image rights VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb
