Exhibition “Mental Places”

Fri 13 Jul 2012, 6 pm
House 18, alley 275 Au Co, Hanoi

From artist Martin Schuster:
“Mental Places” shows inner pictures which evoke by experiencing Vietnam and by ideas of collective dreams, whishes and fears.

I studied painting for 4 years in Germany. The last year I spent at The University of Fine Arts Vietnam, using lacquer painting, oil color, drawing and  etching technique. While being in Hanoi, the time of making art gave me a space to concentrate and to ease which I found hard in this busy city.

The change of my environment made me aware of how strong the influence is, places have on our state of mind. I was putting the focus of my works subconsciously on surroundings and locations. Therefore the pictures I’m showing barely involve stories between people, they are rather meant to trigger the viewers imagination of being at the depicted place and get a feeling about the atmosphere I tried to achieve.

To find intense moments and significant locations, I was dealing with topics like religion, working places, isolation, places of joy and salvation, often in a surrealistic or phantastic way.

Feel free to take a look at my personal perspective on these issues!