Page 45 - Katalog Sigrid von Lintig 2020.indd

Esther Niebel:
Before you started painting people in the water, you painted to-
wers for ten years: industrial towers in mining areas. You were
born in Duisburg, where coal mining made its mark on you from
childhood on. But you also seem to have been fascinated by mi-
ning towers in other regions. One of the first towers in the series
is in Thuringia. You seem to have been interested in mining, in
gargantuan machines and gigantic dimensions as a cultural realm
and as an aesthetic quality. You slaved away on surfaces in the
tower series, which was also about materiality and the haptic
quality of form. The Swimmers are also about a specific aest-
hetic. Though I get the impression your thematic interest has
shifted from outside to inside. In this sense, there is no surface
at all anymore. The surface of the water is churned up by the
swimmers in motion. Their shapes are distorted by the water.
They seem weightless in the water – an effect conveyed visually,
of course, but primarily on an emotional level. Everyone is fami-
liar with the sensation of being “carried” by water. The light in
the pool shines from below, so it looks as though the swimmers
were illuminated from inside. What led to the radical break from
one series to the next?

Altenberg | Thüringen 1996, 200 x 150 cm

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