JOCHEN PLOGSTIES »THE WOOL WINDER, THE LAKE«

Frames of reference between original and its media-related
communication play a decisive role in Jochen Plogsties’
paintings. In his new series of works, Plogsties uses
predominantly artwork from the history of art ¬– conveyed
by exhibition catalogues, newspapers or the Internet. Here,
he performs the paradoxical act of re-acquirement as a
painter. Replica or photocopies of the original pictures are
re-interpreted into paintings. However, he does not mask
the media-related communication in doing so but
occasionally depicts the frames of a computer printout of a
Charitas version by Lucas Cranach in his paintings. How
much of Cranach is still obvious in the pattern of ink on
paper, which is currently located in the artist’s studio as a
template? The re-interpretation of such a sheet into a
painting is a repetition that proves to be creative/inventive
as repetitions within the present state are always joined by
a shift spawning something different every time. With this
artistic strategy, Plogsties questions himself as a painter
competing with the present medium but also the social
processes of remembering and forgetting controlled by the
media and institutions. Thus, a contemporary picture –
reporting of both past and present – evolves.

Jochen Plogsties (*1974) studied at the Akademie der
bildenden Künste in Mainz, Germany, with Friedemann
Hahn and at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, Germany,
with Arno Rink and finally with Neo Rauch, in whose master
class he completed his studies. In 2009 he received the
scholarship of the Free State of Saxony for the International
Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. In the
same year he participated in the exhibition „Kunst in Leipzig
seit 1949“ (“Art in Leipzig since 1949”) at the Museum der
bildenden Künste Leipzig.