"On the date mentioned above this drawing of the Donaukanal [Danube Canal] was created, that is to say: my stream of time. The upside down diary page as background has been chosen arbitrarily – in this way two seemingly random points in time, which previously had nothing to do with each other, are combined. This is comparable to our ability to be in our thoughts at the same time in the past / future AND in the present. I uncover time by watering down its concrete measuring and dating by people because I like it best if I do not notice it. Indeed, during some mental agitation or an intensive experience our awareness of time vanishes. To me these moments seem to be the richest of all that we can ever experience. I perceive time to be a very ambivalent movement. Time can leave behind beautiful moments just like this, but carries the sad ones away with it as well. And brings along new sad, but also new beautiful moments."(Olaf Osten)
Olaf Osten was born in Lübeck in 1972 and studied graphic design in Hildesheim and Dublin. Since 1997 he has been living and working in Vienna. Osten creates an ongoing series called "Pendeln" (Commuting) of coloured pen drawings on used diary pages, which includes his drawing of the Donaukanal (Danube Canal) that he drew on 9 March 2013. In this work the artist interlaces different layers of time: The diary’s surface is referring to the past, the spontaneity of his graphic style to the present and the subject of the Danube symbolically to the continuous stream of time. Osten’s piece is the second contribution to the ten-part exhibition series "Layers of Time" in DATUM.
Layers of Time