John Franzen

John Franzen

Biography Statement Cosmology Pristine Singularity Flux One Line Each Line One Breath The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Darkness Someone Died

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BIOGRAPHY

woodworkers, he felt most able to relate to the use of such a medium. In 2003 he continued his artistic education by entering the Art Academy in Maastricht. As he knew at the time of joining, one of the most appealing characteristics of the Maastricht school was it’s structured education, where he was able to acquire knowledge and skills that fostered a hard working ethic, and a sound artistic background.

John Franzen was born a single child in Germany, in 1981. When he was 6 years old, he and his mother moved to Belgium, where he grew up. His childhood was marked by constant changes of residence. His parents, who were nurses, would constantly leave him alone at home, especially during the night. In his close social circle, he had few male friends, his closest figure being his grandmother. These circumstances left Franzen with a great lack of social connections, and big fear of the night and the darkness that comes with it. Additionally, Franzen’s family did not encourage the arts in his childhood development, with very few books in his house and no artistic pieces on display whatsoever. He confesses he hated art as a young person; he had never been in a museum, and drawing was nothing more than a form of escapism from his loneliness.

He concluded his education in 2008, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. 2007 is also an important point in John’s life, however, for reasons beyond his artistic production. In this year, his father died. Although his father had been distant to him, his death deeply affected Franzen. Personally, he became more spiritual, able to better connect with nature, and he began practicing meditation. Artistically, he stopped creating figurative art, his art instead becoming aniconist, and he obtained new levels of abstraction and introspection. His process of creation became both a performative act, and a personal spiritual process.

This feeling of isolation, however, led to an increasing withdrawal into his inner creative world, which combined with a discovered inherent ability to draw, made him an artist who disliked art. This contradiction is important to understand Franzen’s change of style in 2007, and most importantly to trace the roots of some of the major themes of his work: darkness, singularity, nothingness, and destruction.

After his graduation, Franzen stayed in Maastricht where he works as an independent artist. Over the last few years, he has developed a serious production ethic, which links clearly to both the importance of spirituality in his life, and the great degree of abstraction in his art. He works in two different studios; one is bright and small, where he does his drawings and most of his delicate and meditative pieces. The other is a big, post-industrial space, where he is able to develop his biggest and roughest pieces.

Both places reflect the universality of his character as both a human being and an artist, and his dualistic nature as a creator. Most importantly, these two places show how his work is deeply rooted in an organized private experience, which results from deep self-reflectivity, conscious seclusion and isolation, and his overall devotion to, and knowledge of, art.

After such a difficult childhood, at the age of 15, Franzen started an intensive German speaking education at the Robert Schumann Technical Institute in eastern Belgium, which included 20 hours of drawing classes per week, amongst other artistic education classes. This was followed by a two year interlude, during which Franzen worked both in and close to nature as a woodcutter and creative nature-pedagogue for children. Franzen’s experiences working outside gave him a new perspective on working with mediums beyond the two dimensions, and made him realize his love for art that required intense work of the hands. Coming from a family of

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STATEMENT

Furthermore, the essence of Franzen’s philosophical anthropology is a narcissist view of all human beings. This theme, together with the importance of destruction and deconstruction, takes his performative act to a different level with his latest project. This project consists of the use of big reflective titanium panels, in which he makes cuts, holes, and other destructive acts using different tools. With such acts, Franzen aims to destroy in order to heal both his and the observers spirit. He aims to ‘destroy’ the narcissist reflection of the viewer on the metal sheet. Franzen considers that the viewers, as well as the art market, are nothing more than the center of their own space and time. The recording of these acts is extremely important, not only in this impressive project but in the rest as well. Every piece Franzen creates always involves both a methodological experimentation and a ritual. The former can help him to create the cosmology while the later can heal his soul.

John Franzen’s life experiences have constructed a world in itself, where several themes arise as essential for both his life and his art. Franzen compares himself to a scientist, a shaman, and a priest; his role and responsibility as an artist is to investigate the governing principles of the universe.

In this process, he mainly focuses on the nature of darkness, nothingness, destruction, and creation. The objective of Franzen’s research is building a cosmology, a coherent interpretation of the mechanisms of the universe.

In order to do so, Franzen experiments with different artistic methods.

He begins with the use of paper and the colour white, to explore what he considers the ‘beginning’. Next, is the investigation of the line, with the use of drawing in the medium of ink, graphite, or blood, as a method that formats the blueprint of the universe. The substantial module of this project is one line, a single stroke, a mere movement, that aims to embody the essence of all creation. Each further act is merely a repetition of the first one. The analysis of the line and the nothingness, have led him to transform the act of drawing into a process of meditation, a conversation between the medium and the artist. This connection transforms the visual value of his artistic project into both a performance act and a personal ritual, that serves to answer both Franzen’s inner questions, as well as his cosmological inquiries.

Franzen aims to experiment and investigate the questions around the creation of the universe, with the help of his art pieces. The results are incomparable pieces, that no only have an aesthetic meaning in themselves, but uphold the relevance of contemporary abstract art.

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0 COSMOLOGY

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John Franzen proposes an artistic investigation of creation “As an artist I am naturally devoted to the subject of creation. Since I myself was once created, and I am merely an assemblage of nothingness, it is my inevitable responsibility to create and to build from blankness. In the process of creating, I tend to first reduce everything to nothing, from a state in which there is only chaos and destruction. Next, I approach the universe around me, and all that exists within it: physics, maths, biology, philosophy, anthropology, art, spirituality and mystics, taken from this original point of view. I work from the womb of the universe. Creation and destruction are altered states of the same matter; the first implies the other, and vice versa. They are variations of a theme, and are bound to exist together forever.�

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COSMOLOGY Franzen investigates the origin of art by reducing all into the most basic components, energies, and principles of existence. His reductionist and puristic approach, his very own vision of science, and his personal experiences result in a combination of spirituality, mysticism, and creativity.

Franzen believes that creation and destruction are complementary and interconnected acts, with one resulting from the other. The urge to create and destruct is, therefore, understood as a substantial human need, and it is representative everywhere in his artistic experimentations.

The performative aspect that comes with his creations is of great importance. It becomes a ritual bridging the creator and observer, life and death, beginning and end, god and humans, existence and non-existence, together and thus unified with the cosmos. Franzen’s Cosmology is a model arranging series of artworks, each of them being a natural progression from the previous stage. These can be resumed as the following.

EACH LINE ONE BREATH the linear structure is based upon the human-line algorithm. The works induce both mechanical and organic connotations: the quasi-automatic pattern, wherein each line is a reaction of the previous one, is dictated by the breathing rate of Franzen. The irregularities within the structure result from the externalization of artist’s thoughts, emotions and reflections.

DRAWN BY BLOOD goes a step further in both the limits of the performative act and of the ritualistic form of creation. Franzen’s fascination with the spiritual nature of blood, and its use for shamanic and religious practices are of great importance for this work. The creational process attains the status of a ritual in veneration of life-forces, in which the drawing is reduced to lines, the creator to his breath and ink to his own blood.

DARKNESS a monochromatic black canvas , as the antithesis of Pristine, represents the painting full to the bursting point, on the verge of explosion. The cleansing ritual that comes with the act of burning the piece represents a reunification of the end and the beginning- new possibilities arise once more.

PRISTINE is the experimentation of the “mother of all images”. Aiming to understand the significance of the prenatal space, which is beyond the time, when nothing has been born yet. The visual symbolizes the beginning, purity, nothingness as well as infinite possibility.

THE INABILITY TO OVERCOME THE NARCISSISTIC UNIVERSE refers back to the idea that every form of creation has a destructive aspect in it. Franzen argues that the universe has a narcissistic nature. A mirror can serve to show the true essence of such characterization of a dualistic universe, since it is tinted in golden colour. Whereas the ancients venerated icons and Gods, Franzen venerates the destruction of the reflection of the narcissistic nature of the observer, the art piece and the artist.

SINGULARITY FLUX investigates how the void of the canvas is disrupted by the first brush stroke, and such must be considered the ‘first creational act’. It is the incarnation of energy, which has one meaning; the sheer strive for existence.

The abrupt outburst of energy is an act of creation, while simultaneously, it is an act of destruction of the immaculate empty canvas.

SOMEONE DIED is the capturing and externalization of beauty, death and nature. Nature can only be kept alive if it is to be left free. It can only be the natural way of the existence of true beauty. Yet, throughout history, humans have been trying to analyse nature, to replicate its beauty, by destroying it. In this line of thought, a true analysis of science can only conclude that death is necessary to achieve immortality.

ONE LINE is, as it semantically says, the investigation of a unique presence of creation onto the nothingness. If everything begins with white, the next step in the universe of creation is the unique stroke, the irreversible act that will mark the initial void, destroying its pureness in the process.

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Cosmology

Fineliner and Pencil on 420 gr Paper _ 120 x 40 cm _ 2017

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2017

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2016

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I PRISTINE

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Bone Powder and Silicon on Wood _ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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is pure. It brings infinite possibility; it contains all that it could become.

This possibility to become shapes some sort of underlying tension, since our human tendency to destroy creates a desire to mark the pureness, to disrupt its nothingness. An internal conflict arises, in which the choice can be made to either leave Pristine in its glory, or to transform it, as is the case amongst other artworks such as Singularity Flux and One Line.

“Feeling, being thinking, perceiving, and our overall existing in nothingness is the most important part of being alive, of being someone. We must realize that, in essence, we are defined by everything that we are not.”

Pristine is the experimentation of the “mother of all images”. Aiming to understand the significance of the prenatal space, which is transcendental of time, when nothing has been born yet. The visual symbolizes the beginning, purity, nothingness, as well as infinite possibility.

For this work, Franzen is led by Asian spiritual and religious beliefs that come from Buddhism and Zen, that perceive nothingness as a main factor for their understanding of the Gods and the universe. This idea of nothingness can be traced back to primarily Asian art forms, where the aesthetics created are believed to transcend the mind. For instance, the transparency of a rice paper screen has the ability to make the mind become transparent as well. Similar to this, staring into the white void of Pristine can help the mind achieve spiritual transcendence. The nothingness herein expands our minds;

Franzen’s visual experimentation begins temporary, physically and philosophically in an artistic project that aims to show a pure whiteness; the beginning, or the “Mother of all images”. The white exists as a virginal space, representing the untouched, the unnamed, and the unborn. It thus signifies the prenatal, beyond time, when nothing has yet been born.

This white as a starting point, or perhaps an inevitable returning point,

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Rice Paper on Wall _ 120 x 80 cm _ 2016

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Cosmology Pristine

Fineliner and Pencil on 420 gr Paper _ 30 x 40 cm _ 2016

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II SINGULARITY FLUX

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abrupt outburst of energy, the liberation of the ink on the white canvas.

Such a process is the beginning of the destruction of the immaculate canvas. However, this first outburst of energy can also be considered the most accurate look at the first creation of the line. The energy begins to flow, as the brushstroke represents and experiments with such stream of energy.

Franzen concludes that energy is constantly moving, as Heraclitus already thought in the V century BC, the universe is formed by an ever-present change. Similarly to how one will never step of the same river twice, as the water constantly flows, the essential energy of the universe is in constant movement and such is the only real form and existence.

Singularity Flux investigates how the void of the canvas is disrupted by the first brush stroke, and such must be considered the ‘first creational act’.

It is the incarnation of energy, which has one meaning; the sheer strive for existence. The abrupt outburst of energy is an act of creation, while simultaneously, it is an act of destruction of the immaculate empty canvas.

The next step of Franzen’s methodological experimentation, towards the construction of a cosmology, is the analysis of the brush stroke. In order to do so, Franzen zooms into the construction of the brush stroke, with the use of ink, and different forms in which the ink can be applied on white paper. Like a scaling up instrument, the result gives a very close look at what a brush stroke is, visual interpretations and experimentations of ink on paper. If the line is the first thing one sees, the brush stroke is the first focus on the line. Similarly to how scientists look at the existence of atoms as one of the smallest components of matter, Singularity Flux is a meticulous and narrow look on the brush stroke, a practical analysis of the brush stroke.

Franzen’s analysis can be divided in main forms: hits, and flux. Each of these forms represents a different flow of energy and are creational motifs in themselves. The hits are the representation and analysis of a dot on the canvas, the simplest creation. Franzen hits the canvas with ink, until the creation is visible through a punctual explosion. The flux is the analysis of the linear energy stream. Similarly to how samurais can, with one move cut precisely whatever is meant to be cut, Franzen aims at representing and fully comprehending the one and first singularity of art in the universe.

With Singularity Flux, Franzen creates unique art pieces that experiment new levels of the creational act on the white prenatal space.

Franzen considers that the analysis that results from Singularity Flux can serve to scrutinize the first creational act. The brush stroke is formed by the

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Singularity Flux

Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 100 x 150 cm _ 2016

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Singularity Flux

Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 100 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Singularity Flux

Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 100 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Singularity Flux

Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 100 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Flux studies _ 2016

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Singularity Flux

Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Singularity Flux

Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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III ONE LINE

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Cosmology Pristine

Fineliner, Pencil and Collage on 420 gr Paper _ 20 x 35 cm _ 2016

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to understand the origins of his dualistic approach to the paper and the pen. The use of 24 Carat gold serves the same purpose. Nevertheless, the essence of creation is to be adored, and with the golden colour, Franzen makes a direct connection with the adoration of gods and icons. The first creation is to be considered iconic and of extreme importance, not only when considering Franzen’s art work, but most importantly when considering his cosmological thoughts.

One Line is, as it semantically says, the investigation of a unique presence of creation into nothingness. If everything begins with white, the next step in the universe of creation is the unique stroke, the irreversible act that will mark the initial void, destroying its pureness in the process.

The most fundamental element of art is the line; it is the origin of all existence, the root of all phenomena. In Franzen’s work One Line, he builds upon his previous work Pristine, an exploration of purity and the unborn.

With this project, Franzen considers that the original purity is destroyed, in an irreversible state. After such an act, anything can happen to the canvas. The canvas can no longer remain as the oblivious void, the act of creation has been consummated.

One Line can bee seen as a reduction of Each Line One Breath, but it simultaneously is a maximization of the importance given to the line; the one line holds the intrinsic potential to evolve into any form; it is one line, but it is also every line. The line is the genetic code of artistic rendering, something that is infinitely complex. It becomes the glorification of all forms, and it simultaneously is the simplest of artistic acts. It thus represents not only the essential act of creation, but also the force that this creative process produces. Franzen’s methodological investigations lead to the conclusion that space is not itself the line, but rather it sustains and enables it to take on the form of a line, which ultimately comes to represent the line in its truest form. Franzen’s universal inquire is truly present in the One Line series, with greatly simple artworks that can transcend the barriers of the original void.

In the series One Line, Franzen uses both ink and gold pigments to destroy the void of the white canvas. He considers that the creative act is a moment of simplistic singularity; for this reason, the result of such experimentation leads to the representation of one single, stunningly imperfect line situated more or less in the middle of the paper. The artist is also limited to one mind, one act, one moment. Franzen uses extremely thick paper, so that the line is most visible and contrasted against the original medium. The use of black ink is close to Franzen’s common drawings, and helps him

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One Line

Black Ink on 650 gr Paper _ 50 x 150 cm _ 2016

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One Line

Black Ink on 650 gr Paper _ 50 x 150 cm _ 2016

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One Line

24 Karat Gold Pigment and Resin on 650 gr Paper _ 50 x 100 cm _ 2015

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One Line

24 Karat Gold Pigment and Resin on 650 gr Paper _ 50 x 100 cm _ 2015

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I draw and focus on the void, on the negative space around the line.

When I draw, my mind is clear, I feel my consciousness, my thoughts, my body and the world in and around me. In this state of mind, I aim to reduce the motif and technique to the most basic form of drawing. By mirroring my mindset with the paper in front of me, I aim to achieve an all-encompassing state of being.

I, as the artist, become the mere moment, a moment of simple presence.

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Cosmology _ One Line

Fineliner and Pencil on 420 gr Paper _ 30 x 40 cm _ 2016

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Cosmology _ One Line

Fineliner and Pencil on 420 gr Paper _ 30 x 40 cm _ 2016

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IV EACH LINE ONE BREATH

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tion in this work is how the breath directly influences the materialization of the line, and thereby the whole image. The inexhaustible variety of patterns that can be derived from a simple initial line reflects the diversity of manifested energy in the material world. In the course of this process of drawing each line during the length of a single exhale, Franzen achieves a form of spiritual transcendence wherein the repetitive movements become all-encompassing. The artist is able to find a meditative space by translating his essential life-giving breath into this physical manifestation.

The linear structure is based upon the human-line algorithm. The works induce both mechanical and organic connotations: the quasi-automatic pattern, wherein each line is a reaction to the previous one, is dictated and guided by the breathing rate of Franzen. The irregularities within the structure result from the externalization of the artist’s thoughts, emotions, and reflections.

Starting with a single straight line, each subsequent line seeks to imitate its predecessor. Each breath, and therefore each line, will vary slightly, which makes the pattern evolves uniquely for each piece. Depending on Franzen’s constitution, each work obtains an individual motion, which distinguishes it from the others. Concentration and the repetitive act of inhaling and exhaling between each line allows the whole to evolve naturally into logarithmic-like patterns and layers.

The choice of a line as the starting point for these works, as well as in One Line, lies in their role as an omnipresent element in all aspects of life. Lines carry waves of sound and light. They mark the lunar gravity on bodies of water in the form of waves, and that of the wind on dunes of sand. Lines imprint the trunks of trees and record elemental growth and fluctuation; rain falls and grass moves in the wind in these familiar patterns. Even the irreversibility of time leads us to think in linear terms. The resulting artworks are reminiscent of these varying types of lines that are constantly transporting energy across space and time. The minimalist pattern of sequential, but subtly variable lines also provides an allegory for repetition, continuity, and immortality.

The line, as the initiation of each drawing, demands the most fundamental act of life: the breath. Through conscious inhalation and exhalation, the drawing is gradually created. In this process, every inhalation triggers inspiration, which is in itself life. The lines thus carry the energy of the breath, capturing it in visible images, binding it into matter. The fascina-

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“Concentration and the repetitive act of inhaling and exhaling between each line�

Each Line One Breath

Permanent Fineliner on White coated Aluminium _ 305 x 140 cm _ 2016

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Almost every image begins with a line. The line in these two series is amplified through the act of maximal reduction. It becomes the glorification of all forms and simultaneously the simplest of artistic acts. It thus represents the essential act and force of creation itself. The line, seen as the basis of art, is infinitely complex though it may be taken for granted in most works. In other words, the line is the genetic code of artistic rendering.

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 133 x 133 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 133 x 133 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Permanent Fineliner on White coated Aluminium _ 122 x 162 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 133 x 133 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 133 x 133 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 70 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 70 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 122 x 162 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 122 x 162 cm _ 2016

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I don’t create, it creates through me.

I am just the medium.

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Podgorny Robinson Gallery _ Saint Paul de Vence, FR _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Permanent Fineliner on White coated Aluminium _ 120 x 40 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Permanent Fineliner on White coated Aluminium _ 120 x 40 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 122 x 162 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 80 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 130 x 170 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Permanent Fineliner on White coated Aluminium _ 150 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 120 x 160 cm _ 2016

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2016

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 122 x 122 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 122 x 162 cm _ 2017

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 122 x 162 cm _ 2017

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Each Line One Breath

White Ink on 620 gr Paper _ 70 x 70 cm _ 2017

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Each Line One Breath

Black Copper _ 200 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Copper _ 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Copper _ 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Copper _ 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Copper _ 100 x 70 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Copper _ 100 x 70 cm _ 2016

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Ever simpler forms, towards nearly nothing, reside the mind.

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Each Line One Breath

Black Copper _ 150 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Black Copper _ 150 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Dixit Algorizmi Gallery _ Berlin, DE _ 2016

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Drawn by Blood implies a transition from the organic element, the body to an artificial medium, present in the canvas. It implies a transition from life to death, which is embodied in the process of thickening and fading.

Drawn by Blood constitutes the next sequence within Franzen’s cosmology. The artist continues to explore the origins of creation, and reflects upon an existence of nothingness and nature in the universe. This process involves working with the most basic components of life, such as breath and blood, combining the ritual and the experiment in both an artificial and natural process.

Drawn by Blood goes a step further in both the limits of the performative act and of the ritualistic form of creation. Franzen’s fascination with the spiritual nature of blood, and its use for shamanic and religious practices are of great importance for this work. The creational process attains the status of a ritual in veneration of life-forces, in which the drawing is reduced to lines, the creator to his breath and ink to his own blood.

The process of creation starts with a syringe. The artist gives his blood, which is later transformed into a usable medium by adding anticoagulant.

The blood becomes the ink, and Franzen begins his act of performing one line with each breath. None of the lines touch each other, existing as parallel forms of creation, where every line is a repetition of the first act. The act involves the blood that transports the inhaled oxygen to our organs and muscles, and the breath that comes from the blood that paints and determines the direction of the lines. The result is a stunning painting where the lines create visual waves, and the colours change over time, due to the characteristic of the medium. These will first be red, and later orange, depending on the exposure to the natural light.

Franzen’s aim is to investigate the very basic existential principles of creation process and of the universe, in a similar form to Each Line One Breath, but with the use of closer technique to the body. One basic component of the human body is blood, and such experimentation leads to the creation of an artistic project that takes Franzen’s own physical existence as a motif, transcending the bodily boundaries as a human being. The artist’s fascination with spiritual nature of blood, and its use for shamanistic and religious practices makes clear how the creational process attains the status of a ritual in veneration of life-forces. In Drawn by Blood each breath is a line made of the creator’s blood, which implies a true organic signature of a creator on a truly unique artistic piece.

The physical qualities of the medium enhance the symbolic meaning, in the context of the ritual, extremely important in Franzen’s artistic project.

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Each Line One Breath

Artist Blood on 620 gr Paper _ 120 x 80 cm _ 2016

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Each Line One Breath

Artist Blood on 620 gr Paper _ 122 x 122 cm _ 2016

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2016

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V THE CREATORS INABILITY TO OVERCOME THE NARCISSISTIC UNIVERSE

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Podgorny Robinson Gallery _ Saint Paul de Vence, FR _ 2016

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The Inability to Overcome the Narcissistic Universe refers back to the idea that every form of creation has a destructive aspect in it. Franzen argues that the universe has a narcissistic nature. A mirror can serve to show the true essence of such characterization of a dualistic universe, since it is tinted in gold colour. Whereas the ancients venerated icons and Gods, Franzen venerates the destruction of the reflection of the narcissistic nature of the observer, the art piece, and the artist.

creator, the universe, the observer, and even the artworks are all narcissistic.

None are able to see the other in their true nature, only through the subjective lens of their own understanding.

This project refers back to Franzen’s belief that the universe is narcissistic in all aspects; this is its very nature. Franzen addresses biological, physical, chemical, religious, and spiritual narcissism, in all things and beings. He argues that photons, protons, gods, artworks, and even spacetime itself is stringent narcissistically in themselves.

All try to get as close as possible to the others, while none of them have the chance to exist in the same space and time frame. They are thus unable to truly identify with others, constrained to merely perceive the shadow of their own light. It is necessary to overcome and break through the thin gold layer of perception, which mirrors ourselves. In order to do so, Franzen makes clear that the artist and any other figure has a need to purge, slaughter, and kill our own perverted mirrors. Furthermore, the role of the artist is to penetrate the boundaries of our vision and existence in order to look behind the veil of the illusion of being one entity. Franzen represents such complicated concepts in a remarkable project that can be compared to the collision of the photons that created the big bang. The artist has a responsibility to create a new world, while destroying the existing one, and The Inability to Overcome the Narcissistic Universe can be considered the first step towards immortality, the way to find the answer, the answer that all priests and scientists, lovers and builders have been looking for.

Franzen’s The Inability to Overcome the Narcissistic Universe is an unfinished art project that connects the narcissism of the universe and the problems of the art market in a series of uniquely violent pieces with a high degree of pretentiousness, nevertheless upholding its visual value in a high stake.

The artist does not understand the image, he merely sees it as a creation of his own perception. The image is not interested in the observer, it just wants to be perceived, observed, and venerated. The observer perceives all solely from his personal sphere of knowledge.

Franzen’s project consists of large golden and metallic sheets, on which he performs hits and cuts with different tools, such as hammers, axes, or even guns. The results are shiny mirrors with greatly visible traces of destruction on, and in them. Here, the golden mirror represents the insurmountable narcissism of all things. It is our imprisonment and curse. It is a symbol of being captured in the inability to overcome the narcissistic characteristic of the universe. In the mirror we are facing our own destructive selves. We build our lives in a constant denial of our imperfect, fragile nature and repressed fear of mortality. Destruction is thus a basic component of human nature, but it is one that is mostly disregarded. In the need to demystify and expose the overarching presence of destruction, Franzen destroys the mirror, thus erasing all its layers. Franzen’s artistic project investigates the narcissistic nature of humankind with a hands-on approach; he combines a performance and a final piece, each as part of the process. The artist, the

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2016

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ Ax on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 200 x 200 cm _ 2016

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Art Dubai, UAE _ 2016

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Art Dubai, UAE _ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Ax on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 250 x 120 cm _ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Ax on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Ax on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Ax on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal_ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Podgorny Robinson Gallery _ Saint-Paul de Vence _ Ax on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 250 x 125 cm_ 2016

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Podgorny Robinson Gallery _ Saint-Paul de Vence _ Ax on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 120 x 120 cm_ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Ax on Anthracite Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Ax on Anthracite Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Podgorny Robinson Gallery _ Saint-Paul de Vence _ 2016

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Podgorny Robinson Gallery _ Saint-Paul de Vence _ 200 x 200 cm_ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Bullets on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Bullets on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe Bullets on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ Bullets on Gold Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 2 x artworks 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2016

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The Creators Inability to overcome the Narcissistic Universe

Bullets on Anthracite Titanium Nitride coated Steal _ 100 x 100 cm _ 2016

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VI DARKNESS

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such act can be traced back to the burning of encyclopaedia’s, which is a part of the series as well. All of this signifies an absolute end, nothing, and beginning.

Darkness a monochromatic black canvas, as the antithesis of Pristine, represents the painting full to the bursting point, on the verge of explosion.

The cleansing ritual that comes with the act of burning the piece represents a reunification of the end and the beginning - new possibilities arise once more.

“Everything needs to be burnt down. Everything needs to be eliminated until nothing remains, to the state before anything is born. Norms, forms, motifs are eliminated until only the raw, empty archetype remains.

Smearing it with tar, then igniting this, even further intensifies the blackness of the wooden slab. What results is a surface of pure darkness, in which various indentations suggest the damage that has been done to the material. Unlike the initial black canvas, created by Malevich, which had a machine-like quality, the making process behind Franzen’s art must be made visible, as well as recorded, in order to show the power that lies behind creating this piece. Destroying the darkness in order to heal is an important aspect of this work. The act of destruction is thus no glorification of violence, but rather a symbolic-ritualistic act of liberation, an act of cleansing.

In my work I want to revert to this original state because it is an immortal one, it is omnipresent, universal. The original state contains the truth, the entity and the essence. To get there one has to dispose of everything, all needs to die and be brought back to nothingness. The image and therefore the human being, the creator, the observer is inevitably being forced to revert to the original state.

The effect impacts the observer in the deepest levels; one now is able to observe the true essence of being. Nameless, formless, timeless, space less, unintentional and will-less. I believe that it is the task of the creator and the image to be responsible to the original state and to derive norms that are truthful and thus indispensable for everything. It asks the question of what the nature of things is, what is the truth? What exists before the will? Before the established? What is reality? What comes before belief, religion, before knowledge and silence?

Destruction is the creative act that reverts us to the original being.”

Darkness does not merely represent an end; it signifies a new beginning. It could even be seen as the original, true beginning, since Franzen believes that the universe did not emerge from light, but instead from darkness.

To represent that thought in this piece, all is needed to be burned down in order to start again, and from the void that remains, new images are bound to be created. The silence, emptiness, and origin that the burning of all ideas, names, faces and forms brings, develops into pure possibility to disrupt the newly created void again. The more literal representation of

Franzen’s Darkness pieces are to be considered his obscurest but also an extremely natural one. The act of burning truly related to the most basic instincts and Franzen is able to put such thoughts into an artist palpable investigation.

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Darkness

Burned Tar on Wood _ 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Darkness

Burned Tar on Wood _ 250 x 125 cm _ 2016

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Darkness

Burned Tar on Wood _ 2 x artworks 120 x 120 cm _ 2016

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Burned Encyclopedia _ 20 x 10 cm _ Yoko Uhoda Gallery _ Liege, BE _ 2016

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All you need to know.

The original state contains the truth, the entity and the essence.

To get there one has to dispose of everything, all needs to die and be brought back to nothingness.

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Darkness _ All you need to know

Burned Encyclopedia _ Only Book Page Left _ 20 x 10 cm _ 2016

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VII SOMEONE DIED

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mer, to achieve infinitude. Our longing for eternal life compels us to futile actions which, in their execution, stifles our energy. Franzen has considered that porcelain is one of the longest lasting man made materials, found in artefacts from centuries ago, yet at the same time is so fragile. To drop it is to see it shatter; such considerate choice of material makes a direct connection between the mortality of the beautiful plants, the immortality of porcelain, and the beautiful fragility of both. Franzen hates mortality, but he acknowledges its importance in the universe.

Someone Died is the capturing and externalization of beauty, death and nature. Nature can only be kept alive if it is to be left free. It can only be the natural way of the existence of true beauty. Yet, throughout history, humans have been trying to analyse nature, to replicate its beauty, by destroying it. In this line of thought, a true analysis of science can only conclude that death is necessary to achieve immortality.

Franzen’s project is motivated by the notion that humans cannot appreciate or love something without destroying it in the process. For that reason, whilst taking inspiration from ancient techniques, Franzen chooses a selection of cuttings from plants and flowers, which were taken and cast, some in porcelain and others in gold. The porcelain was then heated to 1250 degrees, so that it could harden and become a strong material that encapsulated the plant’s life. The results are extremely delicate, white sculptures, with the exact form of the plants and flowers that were used to mould them. These sculptures still, and will have forever, the ashes of their natural predecessors inside them. All the sculptures are presented in white monochromatic form, their beauty preserved for posterity but only at the cost of what made them so exquisite in the first place: their vitality. Franzen aims to perpetuate uniqueness and to eternalize beauty, whilst demonstrating that such an act exists at the cost of suffocating and destroying, by reducing what was once a beautiful living entity to ash. It is ultimately an allegory for the mortality of humanity and our desire, as a result of the for-

Someone Died is displayed as a series of small white sculptures, which lay side by side on the vitrine, evoking an image of corpses. Such imagery portrayed by Franzen suggests an urge to collect nature and display it parallel to each other, as scientists do. Science comes also with the cost of destruction in an attempt to find answers, to cut something open and explore its secrets; aiming to obtain eternal life, to obtain immortality through mortal and destructive acts. The idea of science as the narcissistic idea is suggested, as it breaks the harmony of nature, not merely sacrificed but truly destroyed, to appreciate and expose its beauty. These themes are extremely clear in Franzen’s project. We investigate natural order to find the principles of life, but if we strive for immortality while killing everything in our path, we truly demonstrate our madness. Franzen’s pieces capture the inextricable dynamic between death, nature, a strive for immortalizing beauty, in a unique collection of porcelain and gold sculptures.

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Porcelain plants installation _ Studio 13 _ Maastricht, NL _ 2015

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Porcelain plants installation _ Studio 13 _ Maastricht, NL _ 2015

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Someone died

Porcelain Plant _ 200 x 100 cm _ 2013

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Someone died

Porcelain Plant _ 200 x 100 cm _ 2013

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Someone died

Porcelain Plant _ 200 x 100 cm _ 2013

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Someone died

Porcelain Plant _ 200 x 100 cm _ 2013

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Someone died

Gold Glaze on Porcelain Plant _ 200 x 100 cm _ 2013

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Someone died

Turquoise Glaze on Porcelain Plant _ 200 x 100 cm _ 2013

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Moodboard _ 150 x 100 cm _ 2014

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Moodboard _ 150 x 100 cm _ 2014

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+ 31 643 267 460 info@johnfranzen.com Sint Theresiaplein 20 6213 CG Maastricht The Netherlands johnfra nzen.com

ISBN 978-90-826766-0-0 Published March 2017 Š 2017 John Franzen Art B.V. All rights reserved. No part, text or pictures, of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please refer all pertinent questions to the publisher.