Thomas Westphal's Page

Website

http://thomaswestphal.blogspot.com/

Relationship status

married

College / University

Aki, Academy of Visual Arts, Enschede, NL

Program

BA in fine Arts,

Graduation

June 16, 1998

Member type

Artist

If you're an artist, what kind of art do you make?

Conceptual, Digital, Drawing, Event, Installation, Sculpture, Video

I am...

In to it.

About my artwork

My name is Thomas Westphal, I am a German born visual artist living and working in Helsinki, Finland.

My theme throughout the last years has been concerned with the world of sports, the recreational activities such as games and the origins of child’s play.
I try to understand this social phenomenon by exploring its roots and origins, as well as its impact on culture and society.
Sport and Art- are often understood to be contrary even being each other’s antipodes. Although they seem to head in to different directions they are
mutual extensions, - for me they spring of a common source. The Play.
Friedrich Schiller once brilliantly said „ Man only plays when he is human in the full sense of the word, and he is only completely human when he is playing.“
In contemporary lifestyle, -sport and art- form a spearhead, with which mankind
reclaims its need of an intimate space in witch he creates and recreates him self
- We may assume that this holds true since primeval times.

When I started to work with sports I thought myself quite isolated in this field but was surprised to find many fellow artists over the years working on similar ideas.
Between 2003 and 2006 I had an experimental solo show touring through Europe’s sport museums called PLAYONTOLOGY.
Please check out the exhibition catalogue that is standing in the net under- http://www.mmarkes.de/thomas-westphal.html

The momentum took speed and soon followed several solo and curated group shows accompanying major sporting events such as the Soccer World Championships 2006 in Berlin as well as the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing (Beijing Art Biennale).
2007/2008 followed Gallery shows in Finland at Muu Gallery http://www.muu.fi/performanceprinciple/index.html,
And Huoltamo Gallery
http://www.galleriahuoltamo.net/Menneet-ThomasWestphal.html
For the coming years there are more shows in planning and an active artist network has been established.
Coming from a sculptural background I mainly have worked straight with material but I like the experiment and in the early planning stages I carefully consider the most effective media to use. Lately I carefully started to use new media for creative expression. I have to introduce myself as a person with a mere basic knowledge in this field but with tons of ideas, enthusiasm and a history of successful collaboration with media artists as well as with filmmakers.
Collaborative work, networking, interaction, discussion and experimenting are also what I seek in future practice.
To give you an idea of my earlier and recent works I have to say that the earlier consists of installations that have a pseudo archeological character. They are growing collections made of material and images taken from the world of the “Homo Ludens”, the world of the playing Human.
The later are rooted in ideas revolving around the world of top class competitive sports and include the use of new media.

Hey I am just filling this page with info and still have to add my recent Homepage adress, so I want bother you any longer and check the visual part next month.

Artists I like

comming soon

Interests

comming soon

What exhibitions are good at the moment?

coming soon

Centre of the artworld:

nowhere and everywhere