Beyond the Body
The Radiance of the Soul
This book forms the autobiographical origin of my artistic work.
The starting point was an intense tunnel experience that fundamentally changed my perception of identity, reality, and inner experience. What followed was not a sudden revelation, but a longer and often uncertain process of integration.
The text follows this experience and the attempt to understand what had happened within the context of everyday life.
Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to update the font, size and more. To change and reuse text themes, go to Site Styles.
A question that remained
"It took a long time before I could speak about the experience at all. The overwhelming happiness and the lasting impact it had on me were almost impossible to convey. Words felt insufficient.”
(Chapter 2)
Some experiences do not end in the moment in which they occur.
They remain as a question.
What happens when perception suddenly changes and familiar ideas of identity begin to fracture?
How does one live with an experience that cannot easily be explained or placed within familiar concepts?
And how can something that is initially almost impossible to express in words gradually find its way into language, into life – and eventually into art?
This book follows that question.
What this book explores
“Not everything one perceives should be spoken aloud. And just because something opens up does not necessarily mean it becomes a calling. For a long time, I thought I had to work with it until I realized that another path felt far more true to who I am.”
(Chapter 14)
The text does not focus only on the experience itself, but on the period that followed.
It describes the disorientation that can arise when perception changes, the search for orientation, and the gradual attempt to integrate such an experience into everyday life.
Rather than offering explanations, the book traces an inner process: the attempt to take seriously an event that resists familiar ideas of reality.
Over time, this process began to influence not only reflection, but also artistic work.
Themes of the book
Among other things, the book touches on the following themes:
-
perception and the limits of interpretation
-
identity and inner transformation
-
unusual experiences and their integration into everyday life
-
the relationship between inner experience and artistic expression
-
the emergence of art from inner processes
Structure of the book
The text does not follow a single episode, but a development over a longer period of time.
Among the stages described are:
-
The tunnel experience
-
The time immediately afterward
-
Searching for orientation
-
Living with a changed perception
-
Integration into everyday life
-
The emergence of painting
From experience to painting
The paintings that emerged later are not illustrations of the experience described in the book.
They developed independently from the same inner movement, yet in a different language.
While the text attempts to follow an experience through memory and reflection, the paintings move more freely in the space of color, fragment, presence, and relation.
Both forms share the same origin, yet unfold along different paths.
Further texts
Some of the themes explored in the book are also addressed on this website in a series of essays.
These texts approach similar questions from a reflective perspective:
A selection of current works can be found in Selected Works.