On Rarotonga

Hello Mr. jtwine,

I’m writing this mail because of the blog you and some other people created for Christoph de Temple. I met him when I was on a round the world travel in august 2006 on the Cook Islands. He stayed in the same youth hostel on Rarotonga as I did. He was there with a friend, Axel. As we were the only german-speaking guests in the hostel, we met inevitable. I was really impressed by his joy and special way of painting and the small pictures he made sitting on the veranda looking to the sea. One evening the whole group from the hostel went to a bar at the beach and Christoph and some other guys took the guitars and started a great jam session. It was a great evening on this small island.

Thanks for the blog, Hendrik

Never look in the rear view mirror (F.L.Wright), I did...

,

Mrs. Rödel by Karl Hofer 1953

Gunter Wessmann did send me this "surprise" painting above by the German painter Carl Hofer of Mrs. Rödel, currently on view at the Schloss museum Ettlingen in Germany. Mrs.Rödel was married to Karl Rödel, painter and private art school owner in Mannheim Germany. He was running "die Rödel Schule" (based on a Bauhaus / Burg Giebichenstein oriented art education) until the early eighties.

His Wife was a gallery owner in Mannheim. Wessmann, de Temple and I were students at that school between 1980 and '83 and helpers to Mrs. Rödel (divorced by now), the first gallery owner we got to meet in our careers as artists. We were asked to help, hanging shows (part of the curriculum), transporting art work or running errands for her. It was interesting, as much as we hated to work sometimes late hours at her gallery (cheap labour), but we got to see all those works of mostly pre- and post war painters from Germany.

That's were I saw the first time paintings by Herman Bachmann and Herbert Kitzel. Later on I decided to continue my studies in Berlin and became a student with Professor Bachmann at the HDK/ university of the arts in 1984.
All this memory stuff reminds me of W.G. Sebalds memory driven grand writing.

Figurine mit erhobenen Armen by Hermann Bachmann

An L. Skobno by Herbert Kitzel 1961

Composition in Black and collage by Karl Rödel

"see u in heaven" 46 drawings in memory of Christoph de Temple by jtwine

Details from the roof top installation "JT Sysiphos goes to heaven" at Bush/Leavenworth in San Francisco in collaboration with Silvia Nonnenmacher. The weird thing about this piece was that we installed it the day Christoph died, without knowing about his death. The news came a day later like a shock and we decided to rename the piece to "see u in heaven" (unvollendete Weissausmischung) and dedicated it to Christoph de Temple. We were very close in our twenties, went to the Roedel art school in Mannheim and shared in the late 80's an art studio in the Gerichtsstrasse in Berlin, Germany. We did a lot of crazy stuff together.

The piece consisted originally of 40 sheets of letter-size paper. After the sheets were layed out on the roof I drew on them recollected memory fragments and expanded the series to 46 sheets.

The following are selected images from the "see u in heaven" drawing series in memory of Christoph de Temple by Jurgen Trautwein.

Christoph de Temple Fliegerbild

Fliegerbild by Christoph de Temple acrylic on canvas, 200 x 80 cm, 2006

This painting reminded me of the Hagakure, the way of the Samurai.

The way of the Samurai is found in death. When it comes to either/or, there is only the quick choice of death. It is not particularly difficult. Be determined and advance. To say that dying without reaching one's aim is to die a dog's death is the frivolous way of sophisticates. When pressed with the choice of life and death, it is not necessary to gain one's aim...

excerpt from the Hagakure, the book of the samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Christoph de Temple Leuchtturm

Lighthouse by Christoph de Temple acrylic on canvas 80 x 200 cm, 2003

He loved to paint lighthouses. I always wondered why? Probably he wanted to become a timeless beacon over the oceans shining forever into the center of the universe.