Rallipan
My painting style is dominated by the idea that the observer is entitled to have their daydream somewhere else and should instead accompany me into my own painted world – provided of course that the observer's "key" will open the door to that world. This idea is known as metaphora in Greek (metaphor) and means "a transfer," or "to carry something somewhere else." Surrealists particularly like to use this form of communication and are able to apply it in order to provide insight into their innermost selves and thus make new and previously unknown worlds visible and accessible.
I felt like this when I was younger and often dreamed of painting flowers or even being a flower myself: beautiful, fragile and "uneternal." However, since I believed that men who paint flowers weren't very masculine, and because a mere depiction would in my opinion have been lacking in significance, I decided it would be best if I lent my flowers some meaning and reason. I therefore took a line from a song by Udo Lindenberg (CD: Götterhämmerung, 1984; song: Extremisten), as a story that I would then translate into an image. The linewas:...ich bin die wilde Blume an der dunklen Mauer; ein Widerstandsgewächs (I am the wild flower on the dark wall; a growth of resistance).
But which kind of flower should I use? I thought the flower I was going to paint should be of a special type – preferably one that didn't even exist in reality. So I invented a flower that I figured could belong to the lily family, and whose name should somehow be similar to a tulip, which used to be (or perhaps still is) called tulipan in Holland, and which is grown in large numbers on plantations there.
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I also decided that my flower should clearly be named after me as well – i.e. Ralli – and that this should be followed by the Dutch ending. Thus was born the "Rallipan."
The Stories:
All pictures of the series 'Rallipan' is shown below.
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