Diamond Sky
unique artwork
As soon as you approach the works of the „Diamond Sky“ series as a viewer, you become totally captivated by the almost magical light of its stars. How does the artist succeed in achieving this overwhelming radiance? The answer is startling and sensational at the same time: Christian Rock integrates real diamonds into his visual worlds!
So that they can generate their full luminosity, he electrifies the back of the wooden image carrier with small LED spotlights, each of which are placed precisely behind each gemstone.
In this way, the diamonds sparkle and shine out in full splendour from the dull, dark night skies of wooden panels. The artist gains black pigment from coal powder, which he produces specially. Both materials: diamond and carbon, are composed of carbon and, despite having a different modification, are made of the same basic substance.
Christian Rock refers to this relationship by integrating the diamonds in wooden panels whose surfaces have been treated with deep black, and yet still partially sparkling, coal pigment. The opaque black areas provide the backdrop for the bright constellations. The arrangement of the diamonds on the wooden panels corresponds to the formation of constellations.
Since ancient times, individual bright stars, which are found in groups in the sky, are combined to form an image that bears comparison with either a mythological figure, animal or object. As each individual zodiac sign is attributed special character traits and each of us is born under one of these signs, they will never become outdated.
Constellations were once maritime signposting and the means for orientation and have remained to the present day in the context of astrology: looking at the stars usually involves the desire for predictive knowledge.
Due to the substantial link between the constellations with their changeable interpretation and the diamonds as signifiers of perfection, spiritual wholeness, inviolability and resistance, Christian Rock creates a metaphor for the dialectic of human life. He also expresses this tension on a visual level by contrasting the darkness and the intangibility of the sky with the rays and the materiality of diamonds.
