Martina works as a grief taker and funeral speaker for people of all and no confessions. So, I was very curious about her answer because of her professional background. What does someone believe in who is confronted with death and belief so directly and explicitly? 

To my surprise, she said she believed in nothing – or, in many things. She said she was an atheist. But then she told me she’d pray every now and then. “The moment I pray, I create God. I create God as I pray to him. When I do not pray, I do not believe in God. But at the moment I pray, I do.” 

I asked her about the form of existence of such a God – a God existent only in prayer. She explained that she could not tell whether it was a God inside her or outside of her – just that God existed when she prayed. In that context, she mentioned the immeasurability of existence. 

Her smallest thus shows the existence of a God on the condition that you pray to him/her/it. At first sight, you see a more or less abstracted piece of nature, a forest maybe, some moss, a meadow. I chose this background because for some reason, I associate Martina with moss green. I think she would feel comfortable in such surroundings, and that she’d prefer praying there. If you dare and touch her smallest to open it up, God unfolds – symbolised as golden rays, immeasurable. To signify that there is “nothing” from which God appears, the grounding of the canvas is like “nothing”: It is left blank/white. But look at it from a different angle and something comes into existence: You will see the reflection of light, since the grounding consists of a pearl white colour.