Stay cool

Stay Cool is about heated minds and hasty decisions. Far too often, not only individuals but entire societies find themselves in simple and superficial thinking patterns. These are permanently active, emotional and often stereotypical.

Moreover, the work also aims at sustained, heated moralising, which diminishes the energy for reflection and allows only limited constructive and intelligent approaches. Instead of reflection, mass hysteria breaks out more and more frequently today.

Initially, people's own thought processes are so influenced by the teachings of others that they are either diverted or even stagnate. Mental rigidity or narrow-mindedness are the result.

In the end, I am annoyed by my own tendency to often jump to conclusions and make decisions based on unstable arguments and inadequate theories.

More credit is given to hearsay, insufficiently researched reports or statements taken out of context than to informing oneself independently and in depth. The former can be done quickly and without additional effort - the latter only with effort and time, which is what more and more people are deciding against.

This tendency can have serious, far-reaching and sometimes momentous consequences. No longer thinking and reflecting for oneself provides a huge gateway for all forms of manipulation, moderation and propaganda.

Stay Cool is a place where cooling down is offered and is at the same time a space of rest where a mental as well as physical (holistic) shutdown is possible.

The work is a reminder to take an analytical, researching and questioning standpoint in forming opinions, or at least to be aware in rushed moments that there are other options than the most obvious one.

The minimalist artwork Stay Cool shows a calm pool within a room decorated in white.

The pool is located in the centre of the work and represents the centre of the room. It is depicted as a rectangular shape that is drawn out lengthwise like a swimming lane and runs away from the viewer. To the left and right is a slightly higher floor, which is narrower on both sides than the pool and tangent to the walls.

If one looks towards the farther end of the pool, one sees that instead of a floor surface, a wall adjoins it. In the middle of the wall is a window that is slightly narrower than the pool and extends almost the entire height of the wall. Through the window you can see a blue sky - both are reflected in the water of the pool. A boundary of the pool at the lower end, close to the viewer, is not captured by the picture detail and is therefore not visible.

On the left as well as on the right wall, open windows are incorporated. Three windows can be seen on either side, facing each other and matching in height and width. The distances between the individual windows are the same, as are the distances to the ceiling and the floor. Both walls have a clearly recognisable line of alignment running towards the centre of the picture. In this respect, the room appears strikingly narrow and long. In addition, the wall on which the viewer looks frontally appears comparatively low.

The first window on each side shows a barely perceptible strip of sky, which is continuous and very narrow from top to bottom. The reason for this is the alignment of the walls and the viewer's point of view. The unobstructed view from the window opposite for the viewer as well as the vertical sky stripes indicate that the room is in a free-standing building. A view through the other windows of the side walls is not possible because of the perspective.

Daylight enters the room through the windows on both sides, creating shadows - especially on the floor surfaces. The light entering through the windows on the right is shown somewhat more diffuse on the adjacent floor surface. The shadows on the left floor surface, on the other hand, are darker and more clearly outlined.

The colour palette consists only of white and blue tones. While the walls at the location of the window openings are almost 100% white, the walls and floors have a significantly higher proportion of blue and black, depending on the strength of the shadow. Thus, in the shade on the ceiling we find the blue tone Purple Blue with 46% blue, 28% green and 25% red and a brightness of only 48%.

The pool itself has a blue gradient that gets brighter towards the vanishing point. It ranges from blue yonder with 49% blue and 73% brightness to light blue vodka with 38% blue and 93% brightness.

The gradient of the sky takes French Sky Blue, the most powerful shade of blue with 47% blue content, 53% saturation and 93% brightness. This gradient also runs towards white and is brighter at the bottom than at the top of the window.

Stay cool is a digital painting from the series "Breath" and was created by the artist Friedrich Siever in 2022.