This work is part of an ongoing cycle exploring ambivalent states of contemporary existence.
Title: Meaning
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Year: 2024
Format: Portrait format (18 × 24 inches)
Colour Space: The color space is reduced and dominated by shades of green, symbolizing nature, hope, and projection. The torii provides a clear contrasting focal point.
Stylistic Classification: The image combines minimalist illustration with abstract landscape. Geometric forms and flat color fields create a conceptual, symbolic visual language.
„Meaning“ presents a torii gate at the center of the image as a point of attraction: a promise of transition and significance. The green color refers to nature as a projection space of hope and to the belief that humans, as part of nature, can find orientation within it. Yet the architecture of the paths complicates this promise.
Meaning Through Orientation
The image depicts the search for meaning as an active process. The many stairways stand for decision and movement: meaning is not given in advance but emerges through movement. The torii concentrates hope and provides orientation for action, even in the absence of certainty. Nature appears as a resonant space in which meaning is produced by the human being.
Activism of Meaning-Seeking
At the same time, the multiplicity of paths exposes orientation as fragile. Decisions multiply without producing clarity; movement becomes an end in itself. The torii remains silent, revealing that the search for meaning often takes the form of activism—of continuous action that covers over emptiness rather than confronting it.
Conclusion
Humans orient themselves toward meaning while suspecting that they often replace it with movement. Between gate and stair, meaning remains possible—yet unsecured, characteristic of the integrity of ambivalence.