Zeitgeist auf Holz
– The Spirit of Time –
“Zeitgeist auf Holz” is an art series on wood, inspired by the essence of time. It combines painting and engraving techniques, hovering between the two to create an image that is both present and absent at the same time. Through this technique, I embody myself as a liminal space—expressing through a medium that remains suspended between two possibilities: painting and engraving. I inhabit an in-between space, one that, even while already existing, still waits for me to name it, to make it my own.
Within this context, I approach with calm and harmony an event that deeply marked my life: when I was two years old, I drowned in a domestic accident. While painting, I feel water; while scratching the wood, I feel air.
Cognitive memory only begins to form around the age of two. The event took on an abstract form in my memory. The recollection appears as a sequence of emotions accompanied by abstract black-and-white images. This memory has returned to me repeatedly throughout my life. I often observe events as if watching a film or a dream. The final image in this sequence carries a particular emotion: a vast white circular energy approaching me, radiating a happiness so immense that I cannot contain it—or myself. My heart bursts, my mind is clear.
Every infant, upon being born, can only see in shades of grey for the first few months of life. I believe that in the same way, my not-yet-developed memory used that resource to record the life-death experience I had at such a young age. Painting in black and white emerges from asking myself: “Who am I?” This also connects to my question of identity as a non-binary person—embracing both forces and energies without identifying solely with one, but rather observing them flow continuously and gently, allowing them to express themselves and guide me.
“Zeitgeist auf Holz” embodies my belief about the meaning of living in this reality: the dream. The binary reading of reality explains existence through so-called “opposing energies” (good-evil, yin-yang, etc.). I adopt the quantum-physical perspective of reality, which understands the unity of all that exists, translated through the reality we perceive as information (data: 0 and 1), constantly shifting through its endless possibilities. The quantum state of things is itself a constant duality: light and darkness, visible matter and dark matter—and, in my work, black and white. In this way, I express the flow of states through time (represented by the wood), as I am a human passing through time. And in this passage, I leave my mark—not as an imprint of who I am, but as a trace I carve into time itself.
Mx Watson
“My friends”
140 x 130 cm, painted and carved wood
2022, Luckenwalde
“Beer”
21 x 20 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Bretzel”
21 x 20 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Wein glass”
21 x 20 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Gatito”
23 x 21 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Fahrradklingeln”
21 x 20 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Chandelier”
21 x 20 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Taschenuhr”
21 x 20 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Sanduhr”
23 x 21 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Despertador”
21 x 20 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Cenicero”
21 x 20 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Trebbi”
19 x 32 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“VW Golf”
19 x 32 x 2 cm
painted and carved pine wood
2025, Berlin
“Cisne”
33 x 58 x 2,5 cm, painted and carved Mahagony wood
2024, Berlin
“Gas”
120 x 60 cm, painted and carved wood
2022, Luckenwalde
“Das duell”
60 x 93 cm, painted and carved wood
2022, Luckenwalde
“Walzer mit den Russen”
120 x 125 cm, painted and carved wood
2022, Luckenwalde
“Berliner”
40 x 50 cm, painted and carved wood
2022, Luckenwalde
“Sin título” / Undergraduated
64 x 70 cm, painted and carved wood
2021, Berlin
“Osloer Strasse”
41 x 93 cm, painted and carved wood
2021, Berlin
“Ethnia I & II”
120 x 60 cm, painted and carved wood
2021, Berlin
In Germany, I watched as the black line of a drawing transformed, no longer just a mark, but a carving, a rupture in the surface, a portal to a new dimension. What is this place? I asked myself. I had stepped into a different time-space, one that was reshaping me. From the moment I set foot in Berlin, I began to wonder: Could Time express itself through my art?
Inspired by the unknown surroundings, I sank my gouges into a new style. In some works, I abandoned figuration, engaging instead in a dialogue with the material, submerging myself into it. I raked the wood, unveiling hidden layers of reality. My perception anchored itself around a figure or two—until, to my surprise, shoes emerged, parading tacit Germanic identities.
I sought to create an image that questioned the very essence of the image itself, balancing between painting and engraving. I furrowed bas-reliefs into the wood, carving a surface that could hold the passage of time: sometimes burnishing the wood chips back into place, other times emphasizing the presence of the natural grain. Each piece became a unique matrix, an original that could not be replicated. Working with wood allowed me to touch the skin of time.
My artistic inquiries became intertwined with thermodynamics, quantum theory, meditation, and my profound admiration for Albert Einstein—along with a fascination for the cultural ecosystem that nourished his hopeful perspectives. I found deep inspiration in Käthe Kollwitz, a pioneer of German Expressionism, and in contemporary argentinean print artists.
Berlin asked me: Who am I? Here I am: an endless beginning, submerging into the fluidity of “dark matter”, sinking my tools into the wood, being a being in time…
Mx Watson
“Mermelade Skies”
60 x 120 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin
“Warschauer Strase”
80 x 130 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin
“Östliches Kind”
96 x 83 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin
“Africa”
34 x 30 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin
“Stellar dust”
34 x 30 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin
“Organic vs Artificial”
80 x 30 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin
“A singularity”
36,5 x 28 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin
“Interstellar”
26 x 34 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin
“Thermodynamics”
26 x 35 cm, painted and carved wood
2020, Berlin