Werner Linster Artist Statement
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CV

My principal areas of interest are writing systems. For example primarily sign languages of the Shang dynasty in China (approx. from 1700-1100 B.C.), the surprisingly comic-like picture writing of the Na-xi (approx. 2000 years old, China), the hieroglyphics of the Hittites (approx. 1300 B.C., Anatolia) and clandestine signs of beggar and tramps as well as underground comics.

Within the context of my art studies I was especially drawn towards artists and arts movements, who/which had worked in the overlapping fields of painting, drawing, literature and music. One focus was on the Paris based group "Les Lettristes". This multidisciplinary group is little known, although they might be regarded as legitimate heirs to pre-war Dadaist and started their fluxus-like activities as early as 1946.

As an enthusiast of "difficult books", I got absorbed into "Finnegans Wake", the last book by James Joyce. I transformed my copy into a multidimensional book-object with color effects, smells and drawings on the margins.

As for the work of Samuel Beckett, I was fascinated by the intensity his perception of the world around us and by his mastership in transforming these observations into multisensual artistic entities. I shot a film based on Beckett’s novel "Molloy".

As an artist I started off with book objects, paintings on paper and various surfaces and supports. These interests developed into the area of graffiti, and my activities here were always 'site specific' to the respective spaces, walls or found materials.

I worked on disused tiles from Burgundy with paint, made by myself of earth and stones from that region.

In my project "Reed:: Rite" - on the Brandenburger Kunsttage, I painted on concrete silo-walls.

Authors I love: Cervantes, Ludwig Tieck, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, J.M.Synge, Joyce, Beckett, Flan O' Brian, Thomas Bernhard, Paul Watzlawick, Wittgenstein …

Über Werner Linster

Werner Linster macht situative Zeichnungen, die häufig in Holzobjekte übertragen werden. Er stellt sie neben Jahrtausende alte bildhafte Schriftzeichen der Na-xi (Yünnan, Südwest-China) und neben Gaunerzinken aus Österreich (19. Jahrhundert). Beide Schriftsysteme haben die Zeichnungen Linsters beeinflusst, da sie der Bilderzählung und dem Bilderrätsel verwandt sind. Zur Erzählung verdichtet und verschlüsselt wurden sie, weil sie geheim waren – die eine Priesterschrift - die andere clandestines Verständigungswerkzeug der das Land durchstreifenden „Kunden“.

So stellen viele dieser Zeichen nicht unmittelbar eine Sache dar, sondern nehmen Umwege über verwandte Dinge, mit denen sie eventuell nur den Wortklang gemein haben. Oder es werden entscheidende Situationen zum Zweck der geheimen Mitteilung wie ein Comic zur beredten Zeichnung kondensiert.

CV

Solo Shows:

1984        Kalligraphierung eines Raumes, Galerie in der Mehlwaage, Freiburg
1986        What a Funanimal World, Urban Art Gallery, Berlin
1987        Zeichnungen und Malerei, Galerie Lewerentz, Kamen
1989        Bilderschriften – Schriftbilder, Gutenberg- Universität, Mainz
1990        Werner Linster-Malarštwo, Galeria Stodola, Warsaw
1993        Shang Mêng Shou, Galerie Lewerentz, Kamen
1994/5     Social Inventions I + II, VHS-Galerie, Berlin – Schöneberg
1998        Un Berlinese a Roma, Interno Rosso, Rom
                WORD-Komm, (Radio Production) der hörverlag + WDR / Köln
1999        Ziegel aus Burgund, Alfar & Sykora, Berlin
2000        Cover painting für das Journal 2000, The Lancet, London
2001        storyboards, Interno Rosso, Rom
2004        Hors d'oeuvres, Galerie Lewerentz, Kamen
2006        Draw it!, Museum der Unerhörten Dinge, Berlin
2010        No symbols, where none intended, Museum der unerhörten Dinge, Berlin
                Between Seeing and Reading, Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, Berlin

Group Shows and Collaborations:

1983        Christie‘s Inaugural Exhibition, Christie’s, London
1985        Krieg die Strasse (Book) with Lothar Stemwedel
1987        Dialogue, (with Yves Bonhomme), Le Faste Fou, Paris
1988        Der Fluch (Book with L. Stemwedel) Mariannenpresse, Berlin
1988        Traveling Exhibition of Bookobjects, Caroline Corre, Paris
1999        Brandenburgische Art Days, “REED::RITE” Kunstdorf Drewen
2000        The Precipice (Bookcover illustration for Raymond Federman)
2002        BDA-Berlin, Rethinking mit Christoph Kohl, Time Space and Architecture
2004/05   Kunst im Park, BBK-Leipzig, Leipzig
2006        DrawingNOW, White Trash Contemporary, Hamburg
2007        X-07 Director’s Choice, Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, San Francisco
2008        Sushi Lectures, Art Academy, Oslo
2009        Artists Books, White Trash Contemporary, Hamburg
2010        SCOPE Basel, Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, Berlin