Big Walls

Technique: Woodcuts
Dimensions: 140x80 cm
Year: 2017

Vertical world of rock climbing

Why do people climb seemingly insurmountable rockfaces, over several days confronted with the height and exposed to the steep walls, though they could reach the summit in ways that are more simple and without risk?

The adventure, a journey into the unknown, that immersion into the vertical world, symbolises freedom and the associated feeling in its most natural form.

The artwork »Big Walls« arose from a fascination for the history of big wall climbing in Yosemite National Park in California. Three woodcuts give an insight into the vertical world and show three essential aspects of climbing, the societal aspect, the dimension and relation between nature and human being and the individual challenge.

Since the 1950´s the big wall climbing in Yosemite Park strongly evolved and brought birth to a whole new era of free climbing which has inspired more than one generations of climbers worldwide. The strong historical black and white photographies by pioneers like Tom Frost and also the visual language of photographer Jimmy Chin inspired me.

The woodcut technique was chosen as the artistic technique because of its numerous parallels to climbing a big wall. This interlinking between topic and technology became very clear during the implementation, for example in the serious consequences of technical errors or the great physical strain. The large format of the three woodcuts, each 80x140 cm, refers to the gigantic intimidating size of the "Big Walls“