"Color Border"

Wie sehr Werden und Vergehen sowie Freude und Leid einander bedingen und die Essenz unserer Existenz sind, wird in den Arbeiten von Stefan Alexander Kamp immer wieder thematisiert.

Handelt es sich bei seinen EISENWAREN um eine Manifestation des Elements Eisen als den Anfang allen Seins, so widerspiegeln seine im 20 x 20 cm großen Papierformat entstehende Serie  „Color Borders“ die Lebensfreude und -lust auch in schwierigen, herausfordernden Zeiten. Franz Grillparzer (1791 – 1872) schrieb einmal: Monde und Jahre vergehen, aber ein schöner Moment leuchtet das Leben hindurch. Und schöne Momente zeigen die quadratischen Arbeiten von Stefan Alexander Kamp, wenn er mit Buntstift, Gouache, Aquarell und Tusche auf der besonderen Haptik von Steinpapier in abstrahierten Farbflächen und -formen und mit Tusche immer wieder strukturierend und prägend, der Lebenslust fröhnt. Die dieser Serie den Titel gebende Bezeichnung „Color Borders“ subsumiert nur die Neuerung gegenüber bisherigen kleinformatigen Arbeiten, da er nun um der positiven Grundstimmung Ausdruck zu verleihen, die Malerei mit farbigen Rändern begrenzt.

Wie sehr auch Witz und Humor essenzielle Bestandteile unseres Seins bleiben sollen, drückt vielleicht ein wenig frech Norman Mailer (1923 – 2007) mit seinem Worten aus: Sterben kann gar nicht so schwer sein -bisher hat es noch jeder geschafft.  Aber er hat damit nicht unrecht und bei Betrachtung von Stefan Alexander Kamps Arbeiten können alle diese menschlichen Regungen und Empfindungen wie Freude, Leid, Leben, Tod, Witz und Humor als Impulsgeber des Lebens angenommen werden.

(Text: Gabriele Baumgartner)

The extent to which becoming and passing as well as joy and suffering are interdependent and the essence of our existence is a recurring theme in the works of Stefan Alexander Kamp.

If his IRONWARES are a manifestation of the element iron as the beginning of all being, his series Color Borders, created in a 20 x 20 cm paper format, reflect the joy and zest for life even in difficult, challenging times. Franz Grillparzer (1791 - 1872) once wrote: "Moons and years pass, but a beautiful moment shines through life. And beautiful moments are shown in the square works of Stefan Alexander Kamp, when he indulges in the lust for life with coloured pencil, gouache, watercolour and ink on the special feel of stone paper in abstracted colour surfaces and shapes and with ink, always structuring and shaping. The designation "Color Borders", which gives this series its title, only subsumes the innovation compared to previous small-format works, since he now limits the painting with coloured borders in order to express the positive basic mood.

The extent to which wit and humour should also remain essential components of our being is perhaps somewhat cheekily expressed by Norman Mailer (1923 - 2007) in his words: Dying can't be that hard - everyone has managed it so far. But he is not wrong, and when looking at Stefan Alexander Kamp's works, all these human emotions and feelings such as joy, sorrow, life, death, wit and humour can be accepted as the impulses of life.

Stefan Alexander Kamp: EISENWAREN - Iron as the beginning of all being.

In order to visualise a connection between the human soul and life in a work of art, Stefan Alexander Kamp discovered iron colour and its indefinite variability in its degree of oxidation for himself in 2011. The trigger to devote himself more intensively to this subject artistically was the experience of the Alzheimer's disease of a close person, which condemns one as a relative to watch and experience the slow disappearance of a personality and the associated farewell to life.

Artistically, he had already dealt with the visualisation of the human soul in his series "Soul Windows", which were intended to characterise the transition to the ethereal in the small colourful squares. For Stefan Alexander Kamp, the iron paint, which begins to rust on almost every surface by chemical means, stands as a synonym, symbol and connection between life and the soul, which still contains the component of chance. At the beginning of the work, the still grey and inconspicuous iron paint is poured, painted or spatulaed onto the picture support and embodies, as at the beginning of life, a human being born without experiences, sensations and experiences. Finally, the use of chemical agents allows the different variety of iron, the corrosion with its range of red to orange tones, to blossom and at the same time cannot be influenced or stopped by the artist's intervention. Thus the process is set in motion, but due to the factor of time it develops independently and means a surprise and an experiment with an uncertain outcome at any time.

In the meantime, Stefan Alexander Kamp also integrates wood and gold into his work, thus supplementing his symbolic artworks with elements that represent an essential part of history for mankind. The synonym for the development of mankind with the integrative factor of time and uncertainty is thus transferred by Stefan Alexander Kamp in his works and thus iron stands as the beginning of all being.

www.kamp-kunst.de

https://eisenwaren-kamp.com/

Illustrations:

Contributed image: Untitled, 2020, iron paint on canvas, 70 x 70 cm.

Binding, 2019, 50 x 50 cm

VII, 2012, 80 x 100 cm

Iron-Wood-Gold

(Text: Gabriele Baumgartner)