about "the seven prayers" 1998 - 2001

2001 I finished my major project "the seven prayers" which dominated my life for the better part four years long. Many changes in my life accompanied and influenced the work. Deep inside me sometimes I started to doubt that I would ever bring it to an end.

The whole series consists of 21 large sized pictures, each one 180x180 cm. Using a specially designed alphabet based on circle segments the seven tryptichs take up motifs of the Buddhist Lotus Sutra and represent them as text-pictures.

The old geometrical symbol of perfection, the circle as the smallest denominator for unity, is cut into segments, to form a script. Variations of the no longer as text defined words and word fragments are stripped of their semantic meaning and become indecipherable. But this destruction of the upper layer of language bares a deeper level of meaning which only reveals itself after the habitual attachment is overcome.

The series consists of seven prayers: to the sea (1998), to the sun (2000-2001), to the wind (1998), to the fire (1999-2000), to the lotus flower (1998-1999), to the earth (1998) and to the moon (2000). The choosen colors are in harmony with the seven basic elements of buddhistic philosophy.

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York, supported the project through a one year grant during 1999-2000.

All the 21 paintings of the finished work were published as a book incl. 29 artcards, entitled "the seven prayers" by the Edition Ursache & Wirkung, in Vienna.

ISBN Nr: 3-900290-59-8

The first time presentation of the paintings and the book took place at the House Wittgenstein´s in Vienna, on Dec. 15th, 2001