For the Brandenburg Gate Foundation’s scholarship holders’ exhibition at the Max Liebermann House, I am presenting the multi-part installation *Consider the lilies of the field*. The work consists of 33 vessels—primarily my own ceramic vases alongside some found containers—filled with fresh lilies and arranged across a bed of spread soil.
Through live painting performances, I harvest the lilies’ intensely colored pollen. I use this material to paint images of angels and beings of light in warm, golden tones, applying the pigment directly with my fingers. The glossy white surfaces serving as the painting grounds are coated with *stucco lustro*—a plaster based on marble dust—creating a direct reference to the walls of the historic Liebermann House.
I regularly activate the exhibition space (part of the *Im Atelier Liebermann* series) as a temporary studio and a site of continuous creation. Because the pollen is not lightfast, the paintings fade almost completely within two to four weeks, depending on the exposure to light; the lilies, too, eventually wither. Following this rhythm, I replace the flowers and repeat the painting process throughout the exhibition’s five-month run.
Simon Knab 