If the wall stands as an emblem of simplicity, it follows that something must exist at the opposite end of the spectrum. German artist Felix Schramm thinks so; he sees perception as a straight line that is capable of being manipulated, and achieves this end by reinterpreting traditional architectural forms, disrupting white gallery walls with jagged, technicolour structures.

“I would say that I use the names as a tool, or as a shield. So I don’t take on that persona: it isn’t really about my reinventing myself, like The Great Gatsby or something, so that I become Spartacus Chetwynd. It might be like that for some people who use a pseudonym, or it might look like that from the outside; but to me, from the inside, it’s more like an incantation, or a spell. Or it’s like a weapon, or a coping mechanism.”

“The idea then evolved into something else – to make a sequence of images that would simultaneously include both the front and the back. It all happened by chance. And then I started to work out the concept more precisely, and to apply it to other subjects — photographs of aeroplanes, portraits, and the kind of images that normally show up in vintage newspapers.”

“Then I started thinking, what would be the one object that would contrast with them the most? So I thought about a body part. Actually, I thought about a head, which I thought would be powerful enough, and would contrast with the coldness of the structure.”

“In a way, I was hoping it would be more painful and that it would extract more from me. Weirdly, in the end, it was kind of numbing. I didn’t make it to be cathartic –I didn’t expect to resolve anything.”