Inspiration

Because of Love draws upon influential and key events from my life and biography. Intimate connections are made between personal memories and lived experience... these memories are not necessarily autobiographical in the sense of being my personal experience, but rather things that I have seen or been moved by. Experiences mediated by someone else’s life, voice, or art form. I am particularly interested in how these experiences can become one's own - and be appropriated in a way that is both personal and political.
     I am inspired by memories such as the first time I entered the Rothko room at Tate Britain in 1983. My early experiences of the paintings of Anselm Kiefer in 1986,  the first time I saw my dear friend Raimund Hoghe performing, and when I first saw documentation of the dancer, Kazuo Ohno.
     Because of Love has been inspired by, and in some cases makes direct reference to these experiences, which inform key moments and threads through the composition of the piece, which is put together like a collage." - Franko B 

Below are some links and videos to some of the people, works, ideas and events which have influenced Because of Love. Some of the connections have directly informed the piece, while others may seem more abstract, but are still very important.

The story of Laika, the dog sent into space aboard Sputnik 2, and the film, My Life as a Dog.


Kazuo Ohno


Raimund Hoghe


Ron Athey



Tehching Hsieh

Dumb Type

Patti Smith

Gina Pane

Joseph Beuys

Andreas Serrano

Mikael Bakunin

Primo Levi

Peter Kropotkin

Andrei Tarkovsky

My family, my patner , fellow artists, friends, my 2 dogs , my father, the institutions that I have lived in and the ones I have rejected. And the struggle in which the human spirit engages for dignity

Franko with dogs(Franko, Rothko and Beuys)