Red Light 'Dirk'-strict

German artist Dirk Stewen caught my eye this week, his work is melancholic but strangely soothing at the same time. His assemblages consist of old photos, grainy photocopies, watercolour and ink...often tied together with strands of thread which flit through the collages.

The young artist says that the range of colour he uses is inspired by the red-light district of Hamburg where he lives and works.  But instead of neon lights and seedy decor, his palette is more subdued...as if the image is watered down or fading from sight. His highly visual environment undoubtedly influences his constructions. In the first piece below the combination of angular lines and fluid watercolour shapes hints at the female form being constrained or framed (think windows...) This notion is mirrored in the adjacent image, where a leaf is tied tightly to the leg of a chair. Something natural is attached to a harder, solid entity. Nature is constrained, like a woman peering out from a window, or glass box.  The second work also hints at the erotic, with the inky black hat alluding to sexual aggression  and fetishism.

'A thing or two'

from 'Droplets'

'Bronx Monkey II'

Thankfully, Bronx Monkey can't be explained by erotic means, but the grainy photocopy with its spangled threaded edge is tentative, delicate and a little bit kitsch. Stewen compares his work to decorations at a party, 'they look gorgeous at the beginning of the evening, but fade fast'. I think he might be selling himself a little bit short, I can't stop looking.