Faces around the world – kori art work

The Faces around the World series deals with the diversity of different cultures, ethnicities, age structures, genders – in short, with the exciting differences that make up the world’s population.
It always begins with a small black and white photograph from the Internet of an unknown, but fascinating, foreign personality. This is interpreted in color and translated into a large-format portrait. In this process, my primary focus is on working out what is special about the person, what attracts me to them.
The next step is to create the sculptures of the heads. Again it starts with the black and white photo. The distance to the individual personalities gives way to an ever-increasing closeness, a kind of exploration of the physiognomy. The sculpture stands alone in color and expression, never the less there is a strong connection to the portrait.

The resulting triad is rounded off by an accompanying object that picks up on culture, profession or, for example, the nature typical of the country. Each object always contains a piece of wood. The wood symbolizes what unites us. This material can be found all over the world, even as driftwood in the Arctic sea.
Each work of art stands alone.
However, they unfold their greatest power in the triad of portrait, sculpture and object.
My aim with the Faces around the World series is, on the one hand, to deal with the differences in an appreciative way, to explore them and, on the other hand, to touch the viewer and to arouse interest in the differences, in the culture and in the people.