7. Pirate friends
The flower of violence
Picture information:
75cm x 200cm, oil on canvas
The story:
Brutality. Let us take England as an example. There every decent Saturday night down the pub ends
with a good punch up between the lads. The adversaries usually make it up after these fierce fights,
often over a beer. I have witnessed this sort of "ritual violence" myself now and then during my visits.
Each time I was glad that I hadn't got myself into a similar situation. In order to attempt to understand
this sort of behavior, I therefore enrolled myself in a boxing club in Bamberg. I wanted to obtain a
personal insight into the motivation and the circumstances of those who physically have it out with
each other. I also wanted to breathe in the stale air of the boxing ring in order to intellectually
prepare myself for my pictorial representation of this theme. My resulting experiences were both
interesting and complex. They reminded me of my childhood, when I used to woken up by my mother at
4:00 in the morning so that I could watch the fight between Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier. At that
time I was always in a fever of excitement as I rooted with all my might for my idol Ali.
I have found a very old, dilapidated boxing club in Bamberg. The hall hasn't been renovated since
the 50s and the concrete floor is covered with a slippery, razor thin layer of PVC. A smell of sweat
pervades the place and everything is battered and worn. The boxers themselves are all of different
ages - the youngest is 10, the oldest 70. There are hard-bitten bruisers with real killer instinct
and talented Russian future champions. However, all are ultimately linked by one thing: they all
want to indulge in intense physical exercise, believing it will help them to achieve palpable
masculinity. At heart, they are mostly gentle, sensitive boys who just want to be men and they
believe that boxing will help them to achieve that goal.
My painting is in flagrant contrast to the characters and circumstances that I have described.
It is clear, unsullied and luminous. The skull and crossbones in the centre of the flowers are
only recognizable upon close inspection. The flowers are modeled on the retro "Pril"
flower. (Pril is a German detergent, which uses a simple flower design on its bottles). In this
way I have tried to bring out the paradox between the conscious and the subconscious and to
portray this symbolically. This reflects the fact that the boxers leave each other with best
wishes and a smile at the end of every training, despite the fact that during the sparring they
have been doing their level best to knock each other out. The punters described in the first
paragraph were no different.
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Just like the boxers they know what is right and did not inflict their desire for power
over others onto their opponents. At the end of the day the boxers are to all intents and
purposes respectful - not just to the winners but also to the losers. This impressed me
greatly and is in stark contradiction to the current general impression of the sport and
its paractitioners. Hence: Pirate friends.
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