Roger Ackling

The work of the artist, who was born in London in 1947, is characterized by a peculiar technique and the use of unusual materials. Flotsam washed ashore – wooden found and broken fragments, mostly still provided with paint residues, nails or holes and alienated from their former purpose as everyday objects – serves as the starting material for his work. As what has been thrown away has become abstract, this waste of civilization is reevaluated in the context of artistic creation.

Roger Ackling does not work on these found objects conventionally in the studio. He works right at the place of discovery – on the coast or the periphery of the city and is in a certain way close to Land Art, although he focuses the nature and landscape on the object found in it: he makes all physical contact with the Carrier object and with the help of a burning glass and the light of the sun burns small black scars into the wood and arranges them like characters from right to left in exactly straight lines and geometric blocks on the carrier material. The peculiarities of the wood are taken into account and this creates a harmonious and balanced whole that impresses with its inner calm and serenity.

Ackling’s art lives essentially from repetition and symbiotic cooperation with nature. For him, the focus of his work lies in repetition, not in rediscovery or progress.

The work process, which has hardly changed for 25 years, is increasingly becoming a meditation, a liberation of the mind from civilizing influences. In doing so, the artist places himself at the service of nature as a kind of medium. His action is present in his work, even if it cannot be seen. Against the background of the art of ›objet trouvé‹, the found objects, processed in this way, have become art objects.