Continual subdividing, permanent multiplication, and a meandering current of association generate what is often a gloomy universe in the worksof Thomas Zipp: a phantasmagorical world in which natural science, religion, mythology, art history, ideological systems and references to the drug and pop culture cross paths repeatedly in constant states of ecstasy and mania, combining and recombining into a panorama of shattered world views and demolished utopias. Zipp usually visualizes this cosmos in a non-hierarchic, space-consuming arrange- ment of various media – sculpture, painting, collage and installation are closely interwoven. Again and again, he varies the principle of division: for example in the figure of Martin Luther, the “religious schismatic” par excellence, or Otto Hahn, who discovered nuclear fission.

Zipp’s bronze sculpture Pollock 66 examines one of the mythological-religious roots of the cardinal subject of division. This sculpture, developed for the open air, is conceived as a “portrait” of Satan, the fallen angel and primal father of all schisms. Here, 66 sacks attached to a pillory-like vertical pole symbolize Lucifer. But the title is also charged with meaning. The number 66 not only refers to Zipp’s year of birth, but also to the numerological symbol of the devil himself. By contrast, the “Pollock” of the title may cite the Abstract Expressionist painter of the same name, as an apostle of the art business, but it also suggests the word “bollocks” – not only “balls” but also “nonsense.” While this can be understood as the artist’s own snotty comment, it also permits us to interpret Zipp’s sculpture as a gigantic incubator always ready to continue dividing and multiplying.

Born in 1966 in Heppenheim, Germany, Thomas Zipp is a graduate of Frankfurt’s Städelschule. He pursues his investigations into the fields of stories, myths and modern utopias in Berlin.