Kleiner als Drei

Kleiner als Drei begins with a sign that brings two different systems into one another. Mathematically, “<3” describes a relation between magnitudes; in digital communication, the same sequence is read as a heart. Calculation and affection do not stand beside one another as opposites. They arise from the same arrangement and diverge only through the context in which they are perceived.

Across transparent violet, magenta, red and ochre layers, a luminous yellow construction expands. Diagonals, horizontal courses and rhythmically repeated verticals allow it to shift between bridge, supporting structure, diagram and notation. Descending trails of paint return this seemingly precise order to material and gravity. What appears constructed remains in motion.

The collaborative painting process is present within this structure without being smoothed into a single hand. Different gestures, speeds and degrees of transparency overlap, interrupt and support one another. The yellow construction does not connect these fields by dissolving their differences. It arises precisely from the tensions between them.

The work thus approaches relation not as the connection of already fixed entities, but as a process of mutual transformation. Each act shifts the conditions of the others; every form is shaped by what it touches, conceals or leaves exposed. The image has no isolated centre, but forms a structure of reciprocal effects.

This principle is condensed within the sign “<3”. The shift between mathematical relation and digital heart does not alter the visible form, yet it changes the entire field of meaning. The painting translates this turn into material: the yellow construction can appear as measure, supporting structure, signal or relational figure, while the surrounding layers continually displace each reading. Perception does not decipher a completed message here; it activates one among several possibilities.