“Hands” – this is what Adrian Falkner calls a series of ink drawings on paper, which he leads since 2017 in his artistic repertoire. With sponge soaked in ink, he draws a virtuoso line usually with 5 rotations whose beginning and end meet in one point. But to interpret a hand with five fingers in the five lines, however, would be too simple.
Falkner’s interest in writing has changed in recent years in his work: from the first tags, through his distinctive writings as a street artist, to the use of writing and signs on an increasingly conceptual level in public space as well as his paintings. In the process, the composed writing lost its meaning for him. It is no longer the once sprayed artist name as a constructed sign in a surface that is his theme, but with the series “Hands” Adrian Falkner addresses writing as a process of abstraction and as a manual gesture of drawing spontaneous and conceived lines.
In the context of authorship, the hand is the medium of writing. The Latin word “stylus” means both individual writing style as well as writing instrument. Scripture has broadened its spectrum and has conquered space. The line has developed genealogically from mere aid to an autonomous art form. Adrian Falkner has inscribed himself in this tradition and writes in public space as well as in his pictorial spaces equally.