Peter K. Koch

Constructing space, destroying space, constructing destruction, condensing construction. The guiding principles of Peter K. Koch’s work can be described with this sequence – chronologically in the development of his works, as well as in the sense of the complexity of the meaning of individual objects.

Koch’s current series of paintings consists of polygonal, interlocked monochromatic color surfaces whose treatment of edges is based on the methods of hardedge painting. Closer inspection sometimes reveals the visual impression of an implosion of the pictorial space to be a trap. For the skilled placement of perspectival indeterminacies dissolves the suggested three-dimensionality in the expanse of the picture surface. This ambiguity between surface and space sets the glance oscillating between the clean, cold surface aesthetics and the tension bursting forth from space. The overlapping aspects of destruction thereby affect not only the level of what is depicted, but also the conditions of its reception. Koch uses this aggressive compositional principle of a breaking of (pictorial) space in his new collages, as well. In their center stands the re-assemblage or re-composition of architectural fragments into impossible constellations and pictorial systems that thus move constantly at the boundary between surface and space.

The creation of ambivalences is what structures Koch’s working method. The constantly produced simultaneity of overloading, system, surface, space, construction, and destruction finds its driving force in the constant attempt to make chaos present in order – and vice versa. You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.