TITLE: Die zweite Ebene (The second level)

For me, a folding rule is not just a folding rule. An empty toilet roll is not just an empty toilet roll. For me, the simple things of everyday life are the inspiration for ludicrous pictorial compositions. In the photographic works of the Kunstfug series (2022-2024), I bring various everyday objects and found objects into absurd contexts and thus create a new, sometimes surreal level of reality. Only on closer inspection do we recognize the banality and familiarity of the objects. In the monochrome photographic work “Die zweite Ebene” (The second level), I have put together just four objects: A table tennis ball, a passe-partout, a wooden staircase for a doll's house and a sheet of paper with a chessboard pattern.

AUTHOR: Jürgen Sobkowiak (Germany)

Born in Germany (Aachen) in 1970, I came to artistic photography late in life due to drastic life events. I was already interested in art at a young age and was involved in drawing, photography and literature. At the end of the nineties, I taught myself photography through self-study and in the following years I developed my own artistic language.

For me, life is an absurd chamber play. Whether performance, still life, interiors or paper collages - the absurd and the abstract are always present in my photographic works. I examine profound aspects such as perception, identity and the subconscious and explore the fragile boundary between normal and disturbed, inside and outside, real and surreal. The photographic work “Die zweite Ebene” (The second level) is from my series “Kunstfug” (2022-2024). In this series, I bring various everyday objects and found objects into absurd contexts and thus create a new, sometimes surreal level of reality. Only on closer inspection do we recognize the banality and familiarity of the objects. All photographic works are created without AI image generators and are not post-processed.

I only went public with my art in 2019. Since then, my work has been shown nationally and internationally in galleries and exhibition venues. In 2022, I published my first book “Mensch|Raum“. My photographic work “Suizidpakt” was nominated for the 2024 DA! Art Prize in 2024.