The “Quiet Room”
Hohemark, Oberursel
2013
Explanation of the design
The “Quiet Room” at “Haus am Urselbach”, a care home for the elderly, serves various purposes. It is used, for example, as a retreat and meeting room for staff, but can also serve as a place in which to bid farewell to those who have passed or for the bereaved to talk things through. The “Quiet Room” is a light room, around 20 square meters in size. Two small and one large window admit daylight.
Three opposite walls feature three sections of an excerpt from the handwritten score of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor.
The painting is based on the composer’s handwritten notes, which run continuously over the three image media. The reproduction of the excerpt begins with an impasto application of paint on the narrow panel on the right next to the door, seamlessly continuing in a clockwise direction and in watercolor in the opposite work. The design then continues, just as seamlessly, in transparent, ceramic paint on a sheet of toughened glass.
Here the musical notes are not intended to be heard, but seen. In terms of form and content, in my view they seem fitting for the space. They are not constrictive, but are visible without being overbearing, and are as intense as each person present wishes them to be.
The individual notes move, dance, and become entangled above and in the unrelenting staves, just as we do in time.
Size and technique of the pictures
Artists’ acrylic paint, reinforced plywood panels, 200 x 52.5 cm
Canvas on reinforced plywood panel, artists’ acrylic paint, 200 x 153 cm
Toughened glass, ceramic glass paint, 200 x 110 cm
