Philipp Hölke

Art

Banks of Roses

A standing figure drawn as exposed blue line over magenta and teal, its own Nietzsche lettered around it — forest and night of trees, with banks of roses for anyone unafraid of the darkness.

A raw, Basquiat-like standing figure with a yellow-patterned mask face, its body drawn as blue-and-white skeletal line over fields of magenta and teal on white paper; hand-lettered capitals across the top and right spell out Nietzsche's lines, "I am a forest and night of trees" and "he who is not afraid of my darkness will find banks of roses under my cypresses."

A figure drawn as exposed structure — blue and white line laid bare like an x-ray — standing in a field split between magenta and teal, its face marked in yellow like war paint or a mask. Around it, in the artist’s own hand, runs the whole of the Nietzsche line.

I am forest and a night of trees, but he who is not afraid of my darkness will find banks of roses under my cypresses. — Friedrich Nietzsche

The darkness is painted as colour, not absence; the roses are promised, not shown. What the figure offers is a dare — come past the night, and there is something growing underneath.