A pig gazes out of the picture. Only at second glance do human eyes appear behind the eyeholes of the glossy mask. Its mouth holds an apple, familiar from the suckling pig on a festive table. The person shown here is familiar and strange at once: a familiar stranger.
Masks, power and submission
In Bekannter Fremder (Familiar Stranger) we present works in which case takes up motifs associated with fetishism: masks, latex, the play of dominance and submission. This is not meant in a sexual sense, as one might first assume. case is interested in these patterns in everyday life: how people disguise and adapt themselves, how they dominate and submit.
The figure with the pig mask and the apple in its mouth can be read as a comment on the biblical command to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). Whoever seeks to rule over nature finds himself here in the role of the animal, served up like a festive roast.
Smooth surface, rough ground
The figures are worked out in the finest detail with the spray can. They look heavily made-up, sleek, almost slippery, with a flawless yet grotesque beauty. The motifs are developed together with his wife, who stages and photographs the models.
The ground provides the contrast. Small fragments of cardboard, mostly from spray-can packaging, are attached to wood with glue, tape and staples, sometimes at random, sometimes in a mosaic-like pattern. The resulting surface stands for the unevenness found only on walls. On the invitation motif it is visible along the right-hand edge: corrugated cardboard marked with black strokes.
The meticulous painting and the morbid texture of the ground give these works their particular charm. Like a fingerprint, every ground, and therefore every work, is unique.
About the artist
case was born in 1979 and grew up in Schmalkalden in Thuringia, where he sprayed his first wall in the early 1990s, at around 15. The 30-year-old has been working with spray paint for more than 16 years: first on the street, on disused buildings and all kinds of walls, now also for galleries. case trained as a painter and decorator and studied restoration at the Fachhochschule Erfurt (University of Applied Sciences Erfurt), graduating with a diploma. He now lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.
In 1999 he began painting with AKUT, the male half of the artist duo HERAKUT, and RUSK. TASSO joined in 2001, and since then the group has worked as Ma’Claim. The crew is known for its photorealistic spray technique and has quickly played a major part in shaping photorealism in the international graffiti scene.
“Bekannter Fremder”
case
Vernissage: Friday, 27 March 2009, 7 pm
Exhibition: 27 March – 20 April 2009
Pretty Portal, Brunnenstraße 12, 40223 Düsseldorf
Note (2026): The members of Ma’Claim later went their separate ways. case, now also known as Case Maclaim, became known above all for large-scale murals of overlapping hands that stand for unity and strength. His work can now be found in more than 20 countries, including The Beekeeper for the Urban Art Biennale 2019 at the Völklingen Ironworks World Heritage Site.
