All the traditional cultures, that I have been privileged to visit such as in Oceania, Indonesia or Mexico adhere to a unified art concept that is deeply rooted in their transcendent and otherworldly perception and so too do I.
The idea behind my paintings is to show things the way I perceive them, images from without and from within, landscapes of the soul.
I paint according to my intuition, the painterly voice from inside that at times becomes arduous.
The style and technique I then may use has to serve the idea that I wish to depict.
My paintings are “musi-coloured”, my poetry is a lingual weave of pictorial melodies and in my musical compositions I evoke the mind’s eye in order to convey visual imaginations to the ear.
I also wish to communicate that we all are exposed to permanent surveillance overseen by an all-powerful, omnipresent universal entity.
DR GERALD FLORIAN MESSNER, MUSICOLOGIST, ARTIST, PERFORMER, WRITER, COMPOSER, ABU DHABI/ AUSTRALIA/AUSTRIA
I am a graduate of both, the University of Vienna (PhD Musicology/Ethnomusicology) and the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna, Austria (Performing Arts Degree) and have been teaching, writing, producing, directing and performing internationally.
I have also worked as a producer, broadcaster and journalist for SBS Radio in Sydney, Australia. As a painter I am an autodidact.
My ethno-musicological research is focused on primary performance. I have conducted extensive fieldwork in the areas of ritual performance and various traditional singing styles in Bulgaria, Oceania, Mexico and Indonesia.
During my fieldwork in Oceania I was exposed to teachings of ‘Big Men’ (tribal elders with special knowledge) who provided me with considerable insights into the fundamental concepts of ritual performance.