ABOUT ME
Franz Duernberger (1961961) Biography
I grew up in Steinbach an der Steyr, in the foothills of Upper Austria, where the hills begin to reach the 1000 meter mark. At that time my parents were part-time farmers. However, I myself was considered the “dreamer” and among the four children, the one with the “two left hands”. My interests lay in the musical, poetic, religious, and intellectual. The latter not in the sense of broad, well-read scholarship, as a child I had at most two or three books, but in the sense of love for the philosophical penetration of reality. I was not particularly in love with details, but I had a tendency towards expressive, powerful forms, to grasp the “essence” of a thing.
Childhood meant: 10 years of “pure nature” in an intact large family. It was good for me, gave my soul an elementary weight and feeling of being, regardless of the beginning flood of material objects which came with the growing prosperity. It may also be attributed to the nature of my childhood that more and more natural materials play a role in my works.
If my childhood was mostly a “silent dream” , in my youth, I graduated from the HTL chemistry school in Wels (a school that was ultimately unsuitable for me), came quickly “the beat” of the 70s, with everything that came with it. Protest, illusion, consumption and disillusionment. Although I was always on the side of the “religious”, I listended Pink Floyd and engaged with transcendental meditation. Then, inspired by evangelical friends, I delved into the Bible and had some powerful inner experiences.
In part due to this, I was drawn to study theology and finally became a happily married, primary school teacher. The main thing for me is to give the children something supportive, positive and beautiful for their lives. Indeed, as I look back, there is no doubt that, in addition to my own growing family, it was often the children, in their natural openness, playfulness and elementary expressiveness that released a growing creativity especially for me. This subsequently expanded more and more beyond the areas directly connected to the school, both on the musical level and that of the pictures.
The period from autumn 2011 to autumn 2012 became a key year and therefore forms the cornerstone of why I see myself as an “actor”, even if I am a “latebloomer” in the realm of fine arts. The initial push came in the form of paternity leave from the school wherein I pursued artistic activities. At that time, I developed pioneering prototypes in various subject areas, and these are still the same prototypes around which I move. Images which contain, in my opinion, quite original, spectacular aesthetics: strong contrasts in an expressive language of design and the use of natural materials, as well as those made of plastic and metal.
In my most recent pictures I contrast fragmented plastic materials and light metal materials with fragmented natural materials. In symbolic allusions, these thematize both fascination and threat, which emanate from the creative process of humans and the transcendent determination of the human individual.
You can find photographs of relevant images on various subject areas under “Gallery & Themes”. I invite you to “explore”. If you discover something for yourself, please contact me. Simply go to “Contact”.
With kind regards! Franz Duernberger
