title: THEIR WAYS PARTED
year: 2021
src origin: link to asset
type: unique digital asset
size: 8268  ×  11811px, 300dpi
type: png

This work was created in 2020/2021 as a direct response to the societal tensions and political measures during the COVID-19 pandemic—particularly those aspects the artist perceived as intrusive and repressive. THEIR WAYS PARTED ON THE INTERNET comments on the profound social alienation brought about by lockdowns and the increasing digitization of interpersonal communication.

Visually, the piece appropriates a screenshot from Google Translate—a tool that stands as a symbol of automated understanding and global connectivity. The sentence “ihre wege trennten sich im Internet” (“their ways parted on the internet”) reads as both factual and poetic, infused with quiet melancholy. The machine-translated English version, with its polished neutrality, adds a layer of emotional detachment.

Formally, the work merges the aesthetic of digital interfaces with painterly manipulation: visible brushstrokes and a shadowy, inserted object—perhaps an abstracted aircraft or ambiguous presence—introduce a surreal, almost uncanny dimension that gestures toward estrangement and uncertainty.

Conceptually, the piece reflects on the social divisions and polarizations that intensified in digital spaces between 2020 and 2022. It portrays the internet as an ambivalent space—one of both connection and disconnection, intimacy and ideological trench warfare. As a quiet observation and pointed commentary, the work condenses a time of collective rupture into a single, seemingly incidental moment of digital translation.