Lucas Nagel

"Leaving your own lines, tracks and imprints requires courage. It is a way of defining an area, emphasizing something unclear or reinforcing a point, and that means you have to be aware, and show your intention and imagination. I feel that in the time we are now living, a lot of us pass by, so fast that we do not take the chance to see, admire and connect with the small and simple in reality. The large flow of information we receive is ready-made ideas. The ability to feel oneself and above all leave one's own imprints is weakened or even overlooked. This leads to an inability to stop and let the thought sink into itself in order to gather reality-based experiences in a more reflective, tactile and conscious way.

The fascination with nature's diversity, especially forms, has always followed me. The hunter and gatherer instinct is strongly present when I am in the wild, and many small finds are put in the pocket and then end up on the desk. I photograph and print these natural ones, sometimes enlarged, so that I can discover the subtleties, details and structures. I also build sculptural objects, photograph them and return to get new forms of the already finished object.

The fascination with lifting something out of its context and putting it in a new context I feel enriching. The goal of my artwork is to involve and put the viewer himself in an active and creative role, so that he or she can, at my best interpretations, be inspired to lift the gaze from the obvious and already given. I want to achieve a change of consciousness in the spectator so that he/she gets a seismological description of our situation: man in time.

I think it is a great opportunity for you to take part of this kind of art because in these times we have to get a consciousness about nature. We are standing in front of a huge challenge to understand and to take care of the life surrounding us and which keeps humankind alive."