Marius von Brasch

Oil on linen. 50 x 50 and 20 x 20cm. 2016

Mixed media on paper, each 76 x 56 cm.

Mixed media on paper, each 76 x 56 cm

Series (partly commissioned) 

Oil on linen. Each 60 x 60 cm. 2015

Resonances of Splendor Solis, Renaissance illuminations on alchemical transformations.

Each 48 x 36 cm, oil on linen.

These works were my contribution to A garden at the foot of every tree, a show I curated in June 2015 – the artists were asked to respond to a specific garden; please follow this link to more info about show. I have written specifically about the 4 pieces of Rosarium in this post.

Oil on linen. 48 x 36 cm. 2015 (commissioned)

This series is dedicated to my brother Alexander von Brasch who died in July 2013.

In Egyptian mythology Osiris ’s dead body appears torn and dismembered. The lamentations of his companion Isis express her sadness and love, yet by describing the parts of his body she achieves to recollect him in the medium of image and text. The recollected figure remains incomplete; Osiris must transform into a new generation.

The sun god Re becomes one with Osiris by unifying with his dead body in order to experience mortality and the strength for a renewal: ‘What concerns “yesterday” that is Osiris / What concerns “Tomorrow” that is Re’ (Egypt. Book of the Dead, transl. from Jan Assmann, Ägyptische Geheimnisse, 2004, p.27).

Michael Maier, in his Atalanta Fugiens from 1618, gives us a remarkable alchemical interpretation of the dying/recollected king. You can find the picture in this blog post.

This ongoing series is based on my photography, digital input and quotes of illustrations from Splendor Solis the early Renaissance texts on alchemy. 

The works come in limited editions of 10 signed copies, archival pigment prints (Gliclèe) on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Fine Art paper (38 x 38cm print on 42 x 42cm paper).
 

During my residency at The British School at Rome between October and December 2013 (Abbey Fellowship in Painting) I applied my practice – juxtaposing the ‘authentic’/handmade with the ‘dispersed’/digital – to the notion of ‘vocation’. Starting from Caravaggio’s painting “La vocazione di san Matteo” and its installation at the Chiesa San Luigi dei Francesi as source image, the project questions how vocation can be thought about and visualized without depending on a transcendent source. Outcomes were a series of drawings, paintings and a video.The paintings respond to the installation of the painting in the church.

These paintings build one project in conjunction with a series of seven drawings That Wordless Instant of Change and the digital video Three Things.

7 drawings. Coloured pencil on paper, each 76 x 56 cm

During my residency at The British School at Rome between October and December 2013 (Abbey Fellowship in Painting) I applied my practice – juxtaposing the ‘authentic’/handmade with the ‘dispersed’/digital – to the notion of ‘vocation’. Starting from Caravaggio’s painting “La vocazione di san Matteo” and its installation at the Chiesa San Luigi dei Francesi as source image, the project questions how vocation can be thought about and visualized without depending on a transcendent source.

This series of drawings follows a moment of change i.e. the effect the subtle voice of ‘vocation’.

The work builds one project in conjunction with paintings for Postcards from San Luigi and the digital video Three Things.

A work around the frames of Splendor Solis.Each 48 x 36 cm, oil on linen (commissioned).

An assemblage of paintings (oil on linen) relating to an unfinished play by Friedrich Hölderlin about the philosopher Empedocles who desires and fears to become one with the forces of nature by leaping into the mound of the volcano Etna. In Hölderlin’s play it never comes to this leap, the figure of Empedocles and his resolution remain in a state of suspension. The smaller pieces of this assemblage ‘zoom’ different zones of the main piece.

The assemblage relates to a chapter of my PhD thesis which can be downloaded here .

Coloured Pencil on paper, framed measurement 106 x 204 cm.

Drawing/Installation 2011. Coloured pencil on paper. Each 150 x 300 cm. Installation dimensions variable.

A text stalemate/escape referring to this installation at Feint, London is available here

Paraphrases attempt to retell an alchemical process shown in Splendor Solis, a Renaissance series of book illuminations for alchemical treatises. There we are shown a gradual development of integration of polarities (see Blog). Like in other of my work relating to this series, I have interrupted and fragmented the gradual development in favour of time- and associative zones.

Each drawing 77 x 58 cm, coloured pencil on paper.

These paintings respond to Splendor Solis, a Renaissance series of book illuminations for alchemical treatises. There we are shown a gradual development of integration of polarities (see Blog). I wanted to break up the frames that hold these ancient images in balance, have interrupted and fragmented the gradual development in favour of a new kind of (necessarily framed) balance.

Each 92 x 92 cm, oil on linen.

A painted collage of fragments  of Splendor Solis. Subject of these works are stages of the transformation of the dense dark matter to gold, a pattern of alchemy that is widely understood as symbolizing the dynamics between conscious mind and the unconscious, the process of ‘Becoming’.

Both paintings oil on canvas. 60 x 60cm. 2009

The picture in between was the projection of Twins, one of six digital animations onto canvas. You can have a look at the animations here

Oil on linen. Each 122 x 183 cm. 2009

Collages made from snippets from Splendor Solis.

Each: paper, acrylics on MDF. 45 x 45 cm

Each 22 x 25 x 2.5 cm, acrylics on hard wood panels.

Each 22 x 25 x 2.5 cm, acrylics on hard wood panels. 

Oedipus Diving  consists of 46 paintings (acrylics – Alizarin Crimson and Green Gold) on primed hard wooden panels. Each 22 x 25 x 2.5 cm.

‘Eternity is a child at play, moving pieces on a board. A child is King’ (Heracleitos, Fragments).

The cild in this series is both the observer and the observed, observation taking place both inside and outside of his world. These shifting perspectives are amplified through the use of the imagery belonging to the language to the subconscious mind. Oedipus Diving refers to elements shard by Sophocles’ play and Freud’s concept of the Oedipus complex, the latter still considered by many to be the cornerstone of psychoanalysis.

Both myth and modern theory of psychosexual development raise questions around the genesis of masculinity and lead us to examine the concept and reality of gender images and their influence on power structures.

The work has been published as a book (64 pages, 46 images with an introduction by Marius von Brasch. 28 x 22 cm. £12) The book can be ordered here.