He is known for his extensive spatial installations that stretch across walls and floors and challenge our perception: "Verunsicherung der Betrachterposition, Irritation des Raumgefühls, Desorientierung – all das sind mögliche Umschreibungen für die Wirkung, die Achim Zeman mit seinen installativen Arbeiten erzielt.“ (In English: "Uncertainty of the viewer's position, irritation of the sense of space, disorientation - these are all possible descriptions for the effect Achim Zeman achieves with his installations.
")[1] The space altered by Zeman's painterly interventions not only reflects the increasing insecurity experienced by society in recent years, but also enables viewers - precisely because the irritation is caused by artistic, aesthetic means - to engage with it in the first place and to experience uncertainty and changes in perspective not as threatening, but as inspiring.
He does not apply the color on canvases, but to acrylic glass sheets, which he additionally processes and grinds with lacquers:: "This creates color surfaces that overlap, changing their effect depending on the incidence of light and the location of the viewer" (in German So entstehen Farbflächen, die sich überlappen, je nach Lichteinfall und Standort des Betrachters ihre Wirkung verändern.
In the installation "Grünstreifen" (2007) at the Neuer Kölner Kunstverein, for example, yellow stripes suddenly appear optically between the red and green horizontal foil strips, even though they were not glued on.
Depending on the material he uses for his interior design, adhesive plastic film slides are produced, which are later placed in the rooms in laborious detail work.
n some installations, such as "Sehfest" (2008) in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, he spent days applying the colored and fluorescent Foil parts that put a lot of burden on the eye.
Zeman repeatedly worked at the Villa Zanders in Bergisch-Gladbach: "Zeiträume" (2000), "Horizonte" (2006) and "Nah und Fern" (also 2006) were the titles of these spatial productions.
In "Zeiträume" (Periods) a barcode arranged in several lines - consisting of dots and bars based on the binary code - became part of a revolving wall scenery.
Many of his spatial concepts take place in former water-related spaces, such as at the Portikus in Bochum (a public toilet), at the Kunstumseum Heidenheim, which originally was used as a swimming hall, or during the installation at Kunstbad Keitum in 2005.
Thus, the viewer no longer faces a work hanging on the wall as a separate unit, but becomes part of the installation, art becomes a "walk-in picture" through one' s own physicalness.
On the occasion of the exhibition "Visible" at the Städtischen Bühnen Münster (2002) a reviewer described the effects of serial repetitions and Zeman's staging as "that primeval human fear of confrontation with limitless space" as one of the consequences.
Here, Zeman pasted the space at his disposal with a multitude of red horizontal and vertical fluorescent film parts, which have a very vitalizing and energizing effect.
Gabriele Uelsberg, the museum's director, says: "For to move in a space created by Achim Zeman is like an excursion in a world full of fantasy and rich in experience, in which you can let yourself sink into the colour without stopping, and lose yourself totally in structures and optical illusions."