Palimpsest - On some of the works of Michael Lukas
When people still wrote on valuable papyrus and parchment, it was not uncommon for older records to be removed when necessary, to make space for newer information. Today, technology allows us to recover the initial messages of these so-called "palimpsests" and make them legible again. In some cases, the earlier contents of such documents prove to be the more important. As it transpires, the knowledge concealed beneath the surface was not lost; it had merely been silenced for many years.
Art also seeks out things that are removed from our perception. It does so by a process of highlighting certain elements and concealing others. In the juxtaposition of colours and forms, some visible entities elude our attention and are replaced by others. The inward visual processes set in motion by juxtapositions and areas of overpainting in the works of Michael Lukas led Wolfgang Schäffner to draw a comparison with palimpsests. In a group of pictures and objects, Michael Lukas has linked his working method with the syntax and appearance of maps, in terms of the statements they make and their appearance. "Maps open up worlds and are an expression of our times," the artist states.
Each of these pictures was created in two quite distinct working processes. On the one hand, the same screen-print is used, over the main area of which small hatched black and pale-grey squares extend. The regularity in detail is broken by the treatment of the overall surface: some areas are left free, while at other points, the surface seems to swell up. The precise appearance of the screen print can be reconstructed only by comparing a number of pictures; for in each case, different parts of the image are visible between the areas of painting. The artist has continued the fine structures of the base layer at certain points with a drawing pen. It is difficult to distinguish between the areas of ink drawing and print; and to which layer the additional treatment belongs is not stated. In other respects, too, the relationship between the various working phases is polymorphic. Acrylic paint, applied in a diluted form, allows the background to shimmer through, while at other points, a thick layer of paint prevents any further perception of what the observer is exploring. Various structures form a network over the entire surface; locations assume a position and congeal to areas of regular form, suggested by a glazed coating or indicated by a denser covering. Honeycomb-like structures develop at one point, while elsewhere their disruption begins. Spatial or outline forms join up to create a set of variations on relative size and perspective. In this way, depictive features are transformed into symbolic ones; and at the breaks between them, the mechanisms of formal thinking become apparent.
Where symbolic images occur, as used in maps, the scale and perspective change, but on a consensual basis. Animated by the interest shown by Wolfgang Schäffner and Michael Lukas , a circle was formed some years ago, consisting of specialists in German studies, philosophers, architects, art historians and others, whose aim was to investigate the interdisciplinary potential of maps. The expression "mental mapping" indicates in what general sense mental processes can be expressed in cartographical form. On the other hand, maps are an aid to understanding and also a description of the process involved. Michael Lukas exploits this circumstance, linking consciousness and perception in the sentence: "We live in an age in which there is no horizon line any more," to which he adds associative expressions like "polyperspectivity", "paradise" and "Pangaea" (the primal continent) in a kind of cartographic commentary to his work. The presence of past and future reflects the general view. The Global Positioning System (GPS) takes control of orientation if one loses it; and the text with the title " Transition " in the present catalogue is concerned with mental orientation. In a novel by Lukas Hammerstein, there is a passage that reads: "The point of transition is the only place where it's good to be."
There is also no definable location in the honeycomb network that catches the eye of the beholder with its lovely coloration and which thus, for a moment, conceals what is clearly visible below. Shifting the focus of the eye, the surface of the picture seems to be divided into a number of framed facets. The work can also be viewed in such a way that the eye penetrates the honeycomb and sees the background layer beneath. In another picture, there is no other option but to comprehend the generously laid out surface as a view beyond. In this way, a quality of polyperspectivity manifests itself with productive vision.
The objects themselves, on the other hand, heighten one's sensibility for the interpretative process. Nevertheless, it is not easy to draw the line between images and objects. In an essay in the present catalogue on the works of Michael Lukas , Roger Willemsen stresses the significance that "opening the picture to unformed elements" has for the artist. Taking the example of a small box 13 x 43.5 x 4.5 cm in size hanging on a wall, one can investigate how image and container unite to form an object. The wood construction has its own independent identity. It divides the two-part picture area into three realms, synchronous on the one hand, and in the form of a pictorial disruption on the other. Although the dimensions are tiny, a link exists to the artist's earlier diptychs and triptychs. At the same time, the objective impression conveyed by the work contradicts the "formula of pathos of a triptychon". The character of the work and the interpretative approach are modified by the supposed practical function: for example, as a demonstration of facts; the hierarchy that exists between picture and frame is annulled. In its everyday presentation, the designed element is pushed closer to an unshaped reality, both formally and in respect of its content. Under these circumstances, the picture area – enclosed within a narrow frame and with its geographical relationships – advances 4.5 cm towards the observer. As a result, the small scale of the work attracts attention. On the left, a network of lines and the outlines of urban forms – each to a different scale and perspective – are overlaid on each other. In the central and right-hand panels, one sees a continuous mountain structure in black and white divided by a linear timber element and with a fine white line drawn through it. One seeks in vain for specific references to a country, a city, mountains, a network of roads, urban form or gorges. Just as in chaos theory there is an information gap in which important details remain concealed, in this case, information is missing about the place described. The artist assembles fragments to form an aesthetic of scientific character, at the same time denying them the expected content through leaps in the depictive logic. The act of understanding becomes the topic under consideration, presented in a functional construction that has become art.
Other objects consist of individual components that are simply leaned against each other or against a wall. In this way, they acquire a fleeting existence, but they are incapable of being moved as a single entity. If one were to remove one segment to examine it, the whole would collapse. The work has to be destroyed in order to transport it. In reassembling it, the inner and outer relationships have to be created anew. Adhesively fixed or printed panels, perspex sheets with a cut-out geometric form, transparent or black perspex in the shape of continents or states lean against each other as if waiting to be used. Small black perspex countries stand in a row to left and right of a console. Fitting more closely to the wall than a picture that can be taken down and hung up again, the object merges with its surroundings, absorbing them at the same time. The fragment continues, without a fixed outline or frame.
This absence of any confining elements is echoed in Michael Lukas 's bid to overcome the boundaries between individual disciplines. That applies not only to the realm of art, but to specialist knowledge as well. In 1991, Lukas was involved in organizing and implementing an exhibition project in a former factory building in Pasing, Munich, incorporating the visual arts, music and performance. In the State Museum for Natural History and Prehistory in Oldenburg, art and science are combined. There, Rainer Wittenborn, Michael Lukas and Tobias Wittenborn, in collaboration with the museum team, gave the permanent exhibition "Neither Sea nor Land – Moor a Lost Landscape" its form and appearance and therewith its expressive power. On the other hand, in the works discussed, Michael Lukas analyses our ways of understanding through visual design. The aim is to extend the range of possibilities, for the artist and the public alike.
Annemarie Zeiller, 2000
[Translation: Peter Green]