ELEMENTS
Axel Becker's Me/n/tal Water

Water as a continuous repetitio essentially symbolizes the life cycle. From living springs to streams and rivers, from seas and oceans to sky and from sky back to the Earth. It appears as rain or snow, as dew or tear, why not, goes through a cycle from liquid, over vapor to the solid state. This water circulation reminds me of the myth of everlasting renewal, always in a new robe, confirming the great principle of metamorphosis. It is the sensory organ of the Earth, thanks to the water, it acquires sensibility and receptivity, shaping the surface of our planet. The Earth's rotation and the motion of the Moon around the Earth inspire the exciting mixing of rivers, seas and oceans as an uninterrupted, live and elusive rhythm of the water. That is why the rivers, seas and the primeval waters defined the great civilizations of the ancient world. These were the rivers of civilization, but also the rivers of salvation to which were offered sacrifices in the name of the same belief in their heavenly and divine origin. As water is the original element and the great principle of life on Earth, all the world's myths about creation speak of splitting of the water on the water above as heaven's water and the water below as earth's water, of which, after the initial flood or chaos, were created rivers and seas. In these myths about creation and cosmogonies, water is an element of chaos - that is, of undifferentiated life or all possible forms of life from which the life we ​​know was born. It is also a symbol of fertilization, blessing, purification /baptism/, wisdom, eternity, infinite and eternal love. Water is the one that cleans, alleviates, heals, brings blessings, consecrates and deifies. Heaven's or earth’s, it is always the water of life in which one is immersed to be born and reborn. This image, deeply rooted in each people, has found its prominent place both in the Old and the New Testament and deserves deep respect and preservation. But, how and in what way Axel Becker artistically imposes that magical, powerful and elusive physis of water, one of his five elements that form the essence of his creative engagement, and transmit it as a metaphysis? Though he does not come from a highly educated art world but from the extremely exact, business milieu of financial economy, since childhood he has been close to the language of painting. It is a merit of his father who was a painter, but also of his sensibility that is permanently looking at the other, invisible image of reality. That is why his formative transposition and transcription from the real, over imaginative, to the material Axel Becker bridges using the postulates of permissiveness, a gift from a lavish postmodernism. Because, as a persuasive connoisseur and collector of contemporary art, Axel Becker knows that the painting doesn’t necessarily have to be a painting, that the painting as a colored substrate can legitimately bear a metal relief that is not a metal relief, or miniature sculptures that essentially are not sculptures, without questioning the credibility of that ensemble. Ultimately, he creates his thematic cycles on the principles of negation, appropriation and transformation, that is, on quite complex postulates which are achievable thanks to the characteristics of his human and creative habitus.

When I say negation, I mean the physical gift of nature, but also the physical elusiveness of the water that the author captures visually /appropriation/, then continuing its path of unconditional freedom in molten metal in an imaginative and associative manner of silver reflections /transformation/. The effect of these composite painting-objects on the one hand is visually interesting, while on the other it certainly requires further elaboration with less design and decorative elements. This pro futuro is likely to announce the discovery of the space of freedom beyond rigidly imposed exactness and exclusively central setting. Consequently, it can be presumed that the author will find the modus operandi even at the price of liberation of materiality, that is to say, that he will incline to the autonomy of both relief and freestanding objects, then metal reliefs and sculptures. And I do not mind that thought at all! Namely, Axel Becker has all the assumptions, from global knowledge to technical education, from the precision and preciousness of performing to his maximum responsibility. By the way, noble martial art, aikido, ones more determines his nature, but also the nature of his creativity. This paradoxical martial art in which there are neither winners nor defeated contains a significant spiritual component where the journey is as important as the goal. On this path, to be efficient, powerful, non-violent and in harmony with oneself and others is a permanent travel expense of each true admirer and practitioner of this discipline. If the author, with all the tools he possesses, has reached the technical and perfectionist habitus of his creativity, I believe that it is coming a new time of striding from the matter itself towards spiritual purity. When color, if needed, will not be only a passive surface, but it will start breathing and become the space of the soul into which one can freely enter and come out of, while future reliefs and sculptures, released from the imposed constraints, will continue the autonomous life of those who are unsubordinated. For now, this is the Time of Waters of Axel Becker.

Gorka Ostojic Cvajner