Artist’s Statement

The making of bread is one of mankind’s oldest cultural activities. In our civilisation bread is not only a food, but also an allegory for life itself. In Christianity it symbolises the body of Christ and serves as a parable for man's bond with God.

Baking is an art-form in its own right, a fact which I try to draw attention to in my collages. Bread is so much more than a mere food stuff - it demonstrates a connection between our ancient cultural heritage and the modern art of today with one difference. I aim to retrieve what I see to be a lost material-sensuality in today’s art, so that my pictures are not only there to be viewed, but can be smelt, even tasted! A new art-ism ? The Back-Journal writes: "... a new and individual art-style that will perhaps be recorded in the annals as "Roll-Art".

Whatever, my art comes straight from the guts, for I bake feelings and sensations in bread. Note that this is no dead medium. Due to the yeast the dough is quite literally alive and changes the forms I give the dough. The baking process produces other changes, only here are the shape and colour finally fixed.

Occasionally I am working on a series of prominent portraits, so-called "Roll-Heads", where I go beyond the facade of the usual rendering of a likeness of a prominent personality to reveal the essential character traits that I see in the face. To this aim I often break the bread, which on the one level symbolises the injuries suffered by the person in his or her life, and on another my "break" with accepted traditions.

I believe that the increasing destruction of natural habitats, the high-tech trend of our civilisation with its creation of artificial substitute-worlds has led to an impoverishment of our perceptional ability, to a desensualization of our world, and to this unhappy tendency I hope to offer a counterpole, for my work is to be sensually apprehended, that is, with eyes, nose, mouth and hands. Reality, not virtual-reality. Martin Schoenleben, 1998