work groups
the contrast span is nearly imperceptible when wörn exclusively places two blacks parallel to each other. while color contrasts and their effect are the focal point in the earlier work group imbalances, discrepancies and color tendencies of various black and dark gray shades form the content in the work group black / black. all the stimulation of different colors is now eliminated.
in the work group black / black a, the black and dark gray foundation in the center still fit reciprocally, inversely together. there, the dissimilar, dark color fields fall into movement and the illumination occurs on the middle axis.
in the work group black / black b, however, wörn works more radically, limiting himself to two pairs of rectangles with different blacks, respectively, grays, lying vertically next to each other. now the artist no longer links them together, but simply forms pairs. in order to compare the nuances of blacks, wörn takes up pigments such as vine black, bone black, spinel black, ivory black, iron oxide black, lamp black, manganese black, black graphite powder and beech charcoal. in this series, wörn is interested in which consistence, which surface or texture is characteristic of each pigment. this series is entirely about pigment. wörn tracks down the special color quality of the black pigment and finds out, for example, that bister is reddish, another black tends towards blue, that lamp black and bone black offer different textures because of the pigment. the color sensations become even more subtle in this series: in the middle axis area, the black develops into a „colored“ black. with these paintings, wörn immerses himself in a perceptual border zone constantly in search of definitive recognitions in the realm of color effect.
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(chris popovic, december 2000)
