Die Wurzeln der Brombeerranke

Die Wurzeln der Brombeerranke turns attention toward a force that is largely hidden from view. Brambles spread through extensive root systems, allowing them to persist, return and occupy space. In doing so, their vigorous growth can overwhelm more delicate plants — including the sunflower, another recurring figure within Marlon Nikolai’s visual vocabulary.

Within the practice, the sunflower represents conscious orientation toward light. The bramble introduces a counterforce: something that grows from beneath the visible surface, entangles itself with its surroundings and can obstruct that orientation before its full extent is even apparent.

The painting translates this tension into a dense and unstable pictorial field. Bright passages of yellow, orange, blue and green push through darker areas, while lines, gestures and overlapping forms connect and interrupt one another. No element remains entirely isolated; growth, resistance and displacement occur simultaneously.

The work therefore shifts attention from what is visibly flourishing to the structures operating underneath it. Die Wurzeln der Brombeerranke approaches these hidden forces not simply as destructive, but as powerful conditions with which growth has to negotiate. What reaches toward the light exists in continuous relation to what develops beneath, around and sometimes against it.