Igor stands somewhat perplexed with his back leaning against the wall. He watches the fountain gushing out the water which runs over the edge of the pool, ruining his shoes. A cigarette butt floats in the murky scenery. The water colours the gravel at his feet dark grey.
The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in.
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.
I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.
I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the anaesthetist and my body to surgeons.
—Sylvia Plath, 1961
In the stairwell, someone has sorted out part of his bookcase. Between “Nude – The Act” and “Buying a car for dummies” leans a book with the title “Tulips”. Igor’s hands are sweaty as he hangs his coat on the rack in the hallway. On the coffee table, the TV guide propagates the Saturday night feature film:
Rosemary Woodhouse and her husband Guy move into a New York apartment building with an ominous reputation and strange neighbours. The pregnant Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated and comes to believe that her offspring cannot be of this world. But the diabolical truth is only revealed after the birth.
Tulips and naked women, Igor thinks, that just fits. Like sausages and buns. A beautiful idea. He bites his lip. The bathroom mirror is all fogged up from the scalding hot water running onto his shoulders. [The gurgling of the shower stops. In the distance, someone opens a beer.]
In his solo exhibition “Two lips and tulips” Fabian Warnsing shows excerpts from every-day scenes, sometimes elaborate and rich in detail, sometimes implied and sketchily assembled. His painterly and graphic snapshots are inspired by films, books or photos and combine different styles.
Fabian Warnsing’s works comes together as if by chance to form associative narratives. The play with foreground and background, layers and over-paintings visualises the inter-locking of themes. “Two lips and tulips” puts compositional phenomena to the test and is as varied as rhythmic zapping through the artist’s brainwaves.
Text: Julia Meyer-Brehm.
Photos: dotgain.info.