Life series

Town Life - Individual Life - Group Life - Mind Life - Sequence Life - Dancing Life - Night Life - Wander Life - Society Life - Ice Life - Swarm Life - Joyful Life - Surmounting Life - Freedom Life - Path Life

Path Life

The path as a way of life is one of the most central features in Veronika Spleiss’ work. In the painting "Wegleben" the path gets explicitly. Ascending, descending, branching and disappearing, the paths throughout the work appear before the viewer. And yet they appear flat and even. They are man-made roads, which pictorially represent the will of the walkers to create controlled and rapid evenness in their lives. And yet the paths disappear into tunnels and buildings, as can be seen in the centre of the work. They remain invisible and uncertain. The predictability of a life's path always reaches its limits. And so, calculability also comes before the uncertainty of external influence. The buildings and constructions surrounding the path stand for these unforeseeable influences. Although the paths appear clear, their surroundings are confusing. There is also no railing that would save people from falling. The walker creates protection for himself through attentiveness and responsible autonomy. He stands up for his decisions and continues on his way without being distracted and without fear of the unpredictable.

Wegleben - Path Life, 2019/2020

Acrylic on canvas, white framed

82 x 122 x 5 cm

Private Collection Japan

Freedom Life

Since the French Revolution at the latest, "freedom" has been a central, broadly defined concept that continues to be highly relevant to the history of ideas, contemporary politics and the individual. The painting "Freedom Life" depicts in particular the inner freedom of the individual as a state of autonomy (freedom of will) and sovereignty (control over oneself). It is about the human being who decides with his own will, free from a guilty conscience and externally determined values - freedom from himself, from others and thus a power over himself and his actions. But decision also always means a choice against something else and thus implies responsibility and determination in his judgements and actions. The work "Freiheitsleben" illustrates the volatile and repetitive processes of freedom between secure order and chaos. In the upper half of the painting on the right, uniform buildings extend along a flat path into the centre of the painting. This place is about security, uniformity and controllability. In the middle of the painting is a person who is about to make a leap to a decision of his own accord. And this means taking a risk away from the perception of others. His gaze leads into a fragmented chaotic something, consequently a new kind of unpredictable field to be explored. The colourful people in the lower half on the left live in that constantly fight for freedom, which leads them into a realm of inner and outer roller coasters of life.

It's all about self-affirmation, which arises out of itself and knows how to resist the need for foreign affirmation and appreciation. Thus the human being is in the tightrope walk between loneliness and closeness. The connection occurs if the freedom of the other is also accepted.

Freiheitsleben - Freedom Life, 2020

Acrylic on canvas, white framed

82 x 122 x 5 cm

Vastness Life - Weitleben

The painting "Weitleben" was created in memory of an excursion to the Swiss mountains. It literally shows the view into the expanse from a viewing platform, which can be seen in the centre of the picture on the right. The people on the viewing platform look out into a valley full of snow, forests and other mountains on the horizon. They are surrounded by white, which gives a feeling of infinity. Under the platform, skiers can be seen not only looking into the distance, but racing into it. Metaphorically speaking, they rush down the mountain for new possibilities and experiences. For vastness is not only a distance, but also a way forward. As soon as they arrive in the valley, they take the cable car back to the mountain tops, which can be seen in the right half of the picture. It represents a process of taking time out and waiting until the person once again looks down from above into the expanse and races.

2020

Acrylic on canvas

150x120x4 cm

Learning Life - Lernleben

The work "Learning Life" visualises seven stages of learning of a person on an emotional and social level. With each new experience associated with pain and joy, the person learns and is formed. This process begins in the lower left corner of the work in looking up to his parents. The family gives the child solid ground, an understanding of the world. But the child as an individual and his or her own perception can very quickly come into conflict with himself or herself and his or her environment. He moves away from the solid ground and tries to unite different perspectives until the person reaches the next stop. The next learning processes relate to friendship, but also to his loss; to learning and positioning in a group of people; to living with hierarchy; to the learning process with his own reflection; and to learning to pass on knowledge and experience in education. Consequently, in meeting with other people, the individual repeatedly goes through a process of shaping and learning, which makes him grow in conflict.

2020

Acrylic on canvas

140x50x4 cm

Following Life - Folgeleben

At the centre of the work "Folgeleben" is a kind of footbridge or bridge that rises above a city. On the footbridge, people are concentrated into a conglomeration and progress along this trend-setting path. It is not clear what or whom they are following. But the raised path seems to dissolve in the lower half of the picture. Below the bridge there is a chaotic composition of buildings and other bridges on which people are walking sporadically. They too follow a path, which however moves away from the central footbridge in opposite directions. The paths either endure, transform themselves or dissolve completely.

The painting refers to the process of connection: following a current, a way of thinking, or a person. Ultimately it is about joining a community. Consequently, these aspects include imitating and repeating actions that are found to be "good" in the respective current. Following is understood as a process of creating order and concentration. Instead of "Following Life" this work could also be called "Concentration Life".

2020

Acrylic on canvas

135x145x4 cm

Surmounting Life

Surmounting or overcoming can accompany people every day in their work, commitments, relationships and learning. In this sense, overcoming belongs to everything that is not easy for a person or where a fear of failure arises. Finally, overcoming can also be understood quite banally as wrestling with laziness. It is an active struggle against oneself in order to rise above oneself. This life process is represented in the acrylic painting "Surmounting Life" in the form of a staircase leading into the jungle-like fields and mountains of nature. The atmosphere of the jungle allegorically stands for the novelty, which is to be characterized between frightening confusion and daring curiosity. The counterpart to the stairs is represented by the river flowing down. It describes the process of passive visual rubbing over time.

Each step of the staircase represents a further individual step of overcoming. The size of each step is different, and each task to be overcome is varyingly easier or more difficult. However, these stairs do not represent a straight line, but a winding path with branches, pauses and interruptions. Man often changes his direction, descends and then ascends again, and still reaches his own purifying but never permanent goal. In the centre and the upper half of the painting these interruptions become clear. When the person reaches the topmost peaks, a greater humankind sculpture appears to them as the achievement of the goal. For each person, this process stands for something different: the cognitive enlightenment as in the Buddhist teachings, the overcoming of evil as in the Bible, the transformation of the spirit into camel, lion and child as a new beginning according to Nietzsche, the overcoming of his former self...finally, each person has his very own path of overcoming, which each human being goes through for himself.

Überwindungsleben - Surmounting Life, 2020

Acrylic on canvas

180 x 120 x 4 cm

Group Life

In contrast to the painting "Individual Life", the acrylic painting "Group Life" lets the fusion of individuals into groups come to the fore. People in their round and thus flowing forms come into contact, exchange ideas, create something new together or repel each other like elementary particles. The aspect of rounding represents precisely this flow of change.

Likewise, groups stand in the tension between demarcation and opening, which allows them to become their environment. This is exactly what the angular shapes around the people stand for. The edged forms do not allow flowing exchange or constructive dialogue outside the group. They rub each other up the wrong way.

Gruppenleben - Group life, 2019

Acrylic on canvas, black framed

20 1/2 × 16 1/2 × 1 3/10 in

52 × 42 × 3.2 cm

Individual Life

The acrylic painting "Single Life" represents the counterpart, respectively the opponent to the work "Group Life". In contrast to life in a group in „Gruppenleben“, the personal path of the individual is visually clarified with its highs and lows.

The large round, graphically multi-layered figure in the centre of the painting stands on this waved path. Its life path suggests stability in its straightforwardness; the loops within the line, on the other hand, suggest instability: success as well as loss, joy and pain. And repeatedly there are pits within this path that could let fall the individual. Either they let the individual fall into nothingness or they simply represent a new beginning.

Under this path this person sees architectural walls, a city with further life and other ways of life. He is certainly aware of them, can be afraid of them, stand above or even fuse with them.

Einzelleben - Individual life, 2019

Acrylic on canvas, black framed

20 1/2 × 16 1/2 × 1 3/10 in

52 × 42 × 3.2 cm

Private Collection Switzerland

Town Life

The oil painting "Stadtleben" represents the beginning of the art series "-leben". In the spirit of Friedrich Nietzsche, the aspect of perspective is shown as the "basic condition of all life" (JGB, KSA 5, p. 12). Because life encompasses a whole. But man himself has no access to it. The living person is always bound to its own perspective and view of the world, which has a certain order of its own.

The art series "-leben" plays with these aspects. What's more, it tries to visualize life graphically in its versatile perspectives. For the viewer, this primarily means chaos - a supposedly chaotic combination of different points of view that emerge from black or rather nothingness.

Each particle, each geometric form stands on its own, but approaches the other forms and thus establishes a necessary connection. In the end, the work becomes a panorama of a city, a combination of houses, people, stairs with their own order: an order of perspectives.

Stadtleben - Town life, 2018

Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, with framed

31 1/2 × 39 2/5 × 1 3/5 in

82 × 102 × 5 cm

Mind Life

The work "Kopfleben", painted in acrylic, from the series "-leben" places the intellectual work of man, visually represented by the abstract heads, in the foreground.

The Life Series deals with the principle of multidimensional perspectives. According to Nietzsche, perspective is the "basic condition of all life" (JGB, KSA 5, p. 12). Life encompasses a whole, to which man himself, however, has no access. The living person is always bound to their own perspective and view of the world, which has a certain order of its own. The other perspectives appear strange.

In its collision and touching of heads, the work thematizes the constantly modified exchange. But the graphic black also shows its insurmountable remaining demarcation from each other.

Kopfleben - Mind life, 2019

Acrylic on cotton, white framed

16 1/10 × 12 1/2 × 1 1/5 in

40.8 × 31.8 × 3 cm

Private Collection France

Sequence Life

As the title already shows, the artwork "Reihenleben" deals with waiting, following and reaching. In this process the human being is still surrounded by influences, possibilities and new perspectives. The safety of the sequence or queue and the achievement of its goal gives the person patience in waiting. If, however, he strives for freedom, he leaves the line and plunges into an initial "chaos".

The Life Series deals with the principle of multidimensional perspectives. According to Nietzsche, perspective is the "basic condition of all life" (JGB, KSA 5, p. 12). Because life encompasses a whole. But man himself has no access to it. The living person is always bound to its own perspective and view of the world, which has a certain order of its own.

Reihenleben - Sequence life, 2019

Acrylic on cotton

20 2/5 × 9 4/5 × 1 1/5 in

51.8 × 24.8 × 3 cm

Dancing Life

Tanzleben - Dancing Life, 2019

Acrylic on canvas

39 2/5 × 19 7/10 × 1 1/2 in

100 × 50 × 3.8 cm

Still Life

The graphic acrylic painting "Still Life" combines the tradition of the classical still life with our modern present. The large bouquet of flowers as an immobile composition appears before the viewer in bright green tones. As aesthetically immovable as the flowers are in the painting, they are transient in their form of existence. In the symbolic sense of vanitas they stand for transience. The flowers have a certain lifetime at their disposal. The climax of their beauty is captured in the still life. The same aspect applies to the lower half of the painting. On the table are two objects typical of everyday life for the contemporary observer: on the right lies a smartphone, on the left a tablet. On their surface is the mirror image of flowers, which in the art history of still life stands for immortalization and identical reproduction of reality. At first glance, the technical objects as inanimate things appear to have nothing to do with the idea of vanity. But just like withering flowers, they reach a man-made expiration date. With the progress of technology and digitalisation, they too will be replaced by new objects in the future.

Still-leben - Still Life, 2019

Acrylic on canvas, white framed

102x82x5 cm

Night Life

Nachtleben - Night Life, 2019

Acrylic on canvas

80x120x3,8 cm

Private Collection Germany

Wander Life

Recurrently, people move from one destination to another, both geographically and metaphorically. He is in search and as soon as he finds, he continues his journey to new shores. In this sense, the work describes not only a continuous migration from place to place, but also from destination to destination. In chaotic realms, people go their way, sleep, rest, eat and drink - they live on their journey. Individually or in community they cross the country. The marked out path gives the figures orientation until the next destination.

For the observer, too, this clear path, beginning in the lower half, means a syntactic structuring of the work, which as a whole is characterised by a chaotic wealth of forms. The view wanders from fragment to fragment. But just like the figures, the viewer finds a foothold in the clear path.

Wanderleben - Wander Life, 2019

Acrylic on canvas, white framed

47 1/5 × 39 2/5 × 1 1/5 in

122 × 102 × 3,2 cm

Private Collection Switzerland