Working in clay bears the unexpected which I regard as a gift.Markus Karstieß (b. Haan
Rhineland 1971 lives and works in Düsseldorf) studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts
from 1992 and 1998 finishing in the class of Jannis Kounellis. In 2005 the encounter with
Lucio Fontana's large-format ceramic relief Il Sole (1952) in the pavilion built for the work
by Erwin Heerich on the Raketenstation Hombroich inspired him to try his hand at working in
clay. He eventually focused his creative energies on this material and intuitively entrusted
himself to its intrinsic dynamic qualities developing a distinctive formal idiom in sculptures
installations and spatial ensembles. Using a wide range of firing techniques such as the
ancient Japanese method used to make Raku ware or old Arabian metallic glazes his oeuvre
unfolds between the organic and the geometrical the sombre and the gloss of glamour crude
form and perfect surfaces.In his artist's book Markus Karstieß explores the interplay between
his art and the architectonic and natural surroundings at the Siza Pavilion at Raketenstation
Hombroich through the lens of photography. Over the course of weeks he visited his exhibition
Irden at different times of day and night probing the works' effect on the viewer. The
resulting photographic essay is complemented by a conversation between the artist and the
collector Volker Kahmen who lives at Hombroich and essays by Jannis Kounellis Friedrich
Meschede and Frank Boehm.
