Artist interview
1. What inspired you to become an artist, and when did you start to take art seriously?
I don't know where the drive to become an artist came from. When it comes to art, I came from an uneducated background. As a child, I started drawing things. Without instruction. Without anyone telling me to. Just like that. Just for myself. The interesting thing is that I never had any real art lessons during my entire school career. I didn't take any courses after school. I didn't go to any academy. Nevertheless, I had a burning desire to become an artist. I remember asking my wife before deciding to work exclusively as a freelance artist whether she thought I could do it (this was shortly before we had our first child). Her answer at the time was pretty sobering.
On January 1, 1993, I started working as a freelance artist. Two weeks later, my wife told me she was pregnant.
My first serious artistic work, a series of photographs that I still like today after many years, was created in 1983. My first sculpture was in 1986. The title of the sculpture, which is perhaps 28 cm high and made of iron, is “Uli die Banane” (Uli the Banana).
2. Which artists were/are particularly important to you? Which artists have influenced your work?
That depends on the time and stage of life. Initially, as a young adult and seeker, Josef Beuys. Then Alfred Hrdlicka, who never gave up on figurative art in the West and redefined it. And visiting an exhibition by Karl Manfred Rennertz in 1990 at the Kunstgebäude in Stuttgart. Later, in exchanges as good friends and colleagues, Isa Dahl and Daniel Wagenblast. And Willi Siber.
Of course, there are sometimes overlaps. That can't be avoided. That someone develops something that others have also thought about. But I can't say that anyone has had a lasting influence on my work and my creativity. How did that song line go back then, many, many years ago? Stay independent. Do it yourself. It's taken out of context. But it was a message that had a profound effect on me and resonated with me. It related to me, my life, and my work.
famous visual artist in Berlin with purchases and exhibitions in major museums. Others pursue their talent part-time. When the opportunity to study painting arose at the age of 25, I didn't hesitate for long and completed a distance learning course at the HAF Hamburg. For me as a young mother, this was ideal; I could easily cope with all the demands late in the evening and at night. Nowadays, everything is online - like working from home.
3. Could you walk us through the creative process you go through when you create a new work?
No, I can't. Because it's not a series of repetitive, identical steps. It's a process. And a creative one at that! It's constantly changing. And new things are constantly being added. I see something. I pick it up. And I think: Try to do something with it.
What I can say is: When something new appears in front of me, I often try to capture it as a sketch. Then I try to translate it into a small 23 x 23 cm picture. It must be said, however, that the small pictures are the most difficult to create. They require absolute and utmost concentration when working with the chainsaw. When the artwork is finished and I am happy with the result, I sometimes transfer it to a larger artwork, say 50 x 50 cm or even 60 x 60 cm. If I am still satisfied and happy with the result, I venture into large sizes ranging from 100 x 100 cm to 180 x 180 cm.
I can also say something about the origin of the VISBCOR artworks shown in the exhibition ZWISCHEN DEN SCHICHTEN (BETWEEN THE LAYERS). In 2017, a very good friend of mine spent nine months with her husband and daughter at the partner university where she teaches. It was in Adelaide, Australia. After all three of them had settled in and acclimatized well, she wrote to me: The mice have been scared away. We still have an empty room in the house. So you can come whenever you want. I didn't say no. My last big trip abroad had been several years ago. And these stays abroad always meant RESET for me. After such a stay abroad, I always develop something new. That was also the case back then.
When I returned from Australia after six weeks of work with two cameras and two tripods, I suddenly had the impulse to saw deep into Plexiglas panels with a chainsaw. And to do so in such a way that these incisions would appear three-dimensional when viewed from the other side. Ultimately, something like a “negative” relief. I immediately drove to my workshop at the time. Because if you don't follow such an impulse immediately, it could be lost. In the workshop, I still had an 8 mm thick original Plexiglas sheet. It was left over from an older project. There in the workshop, my courage failed me before I made the first cut into the Plexiglas sheet. Because such a sheet is not exactly cheap. And if the endeavor didn't work out, it would be quite a financial loss. “Young man,” I said to myself. “That sheet has been sitting around in the studio for over 10 years.” “Do you want it to sit around for another 10 years?” “So do it!” “Just do it.” And so I actually began the chainsaw/plexiglass project. When I had finished this step, I took out my paints, which I had mixed with special pigments. I had already been experimenting with these on different materials for over 10 years. When this first painting was finally finished, I had to sit down for a moment. Because for me, what I saw in front of me was incredible!
4. Is there a specific theme or message you want to convey in your work?
Over the decades, there have been new messages and themes time and again. I happened to come across an old invitation card from 2017 today. It said: From RAUM & UNRAUM (exhibition and catalog title from 1999) to STADTKÖRPER & KÖRPERSTÄDTEN (catalog and exhibition title from 2002) to NACHTLICHTEN LICHTNÄCHTEN (exhibition and catalog title from 2007) to UNDER WATER UP TO THE SKY (A Never Told Story).
Last year, the two VISBCOR series of images EIN LEERER TELLER MACHT KEINEN SINN (An Empty Plate Makes No Sense) and EIN LEERER TISCH MÖCHTE GEDECKT SEIN (An Empty Table Wants to Be Set) were created. In this context, works with the title AUCH EIN LEERER TELLER AUS PUREM GOLD IST NICHTS ANDERES ALS EIN LEERER TELLER (Even an empty plate made of pure gold is nothing more than an empty plate) were also created.
5. What has been the biggest challenge in your artistic career so far, and how did you deal with it?
Right at the beginning, the fact that I was responsible for a family. Fortunately, I had the strength and energy to do three jobs at the time. And that was enough to cover half of one person's income. So somehow it just about worked out. It was a really tough time. I wouldn't want to go through that again, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone else either.
In terms of work, it was an art in construction project for the new PSD Bank RNS building in Saarbrücken. When you enter the main entrance, you stand in a room that is open across four floors of the building. My vision for this room was an aquarium made of air. There were two AIR FISH floating in this aquarium (with which you can communicate). As well as a BEAMER SCULPTURE. The BEAMER SCULPTURE had “arms” like the tentacles of a sea creature. Transparent panels were attached to the ends of these arms. These panels had the task of mirroring the video image that the beamer projected onto the opposite wall and projecting it onto other places and walls in the room.
I created over 18 hours of video material on the subject of WATER for the project. My aim was to ensure that even after a long time, temporary workers would still be amazed when they suddenly saw a video they had not seen before. I was in the mountains, at the sea, underwater, above water, and even in the extreme macro realm of water. In one of the macro videos, a previously placed drop of water spins in the wind as if it had a ball bearing. Incredible. Or the video THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. Everything was created without AI or other artificial aids. Everything was “just” filmed. Camera. Tripod. Light. And patience. A lot of patience.
Incidentally, two videos from this period can be found on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user89451440
This project taught me how great the contrast between a vision and the implementation of that vision can be. I learned an incredible amount during this time. In very different areas. Unfortunately, however, I was completely stressed out for years and, sadly, very often close to despair.
When everything was finally installed in the building and worked as I had envisioned and presented in my verbal and model presentations, everyone was happy and more than satisfied.
6. Are there any techniques or materials you prefer?
That has changed repeatedly over the past 45 years. I originally started out in photography. I don't remember why I became fascinated with photography or where that fascination came from. In any case, I quickly set up a darkroom where I could develop my photos and black-and-white films myself and also experiment. At that time, I put all my money and almost all my energy into it. And then, after working through the night, I often almost fell asleep at school the next day.
Then I became incredibly fascinated by the malleability of stone. When you watched Alfred Hrdlicka at work, his handling of the material stone and the tools was incredible. I met Hrdlicka in person once as a young man during a book signing. And shortly afterwards, I was standing in a stone sculptor's workshop learning how to use these very tools and materials. A few years later, after visiting an exhibition by Prof. Karl Friedrich Rennertz at the Kunstgebäude in Stuttgart in 1990, wood and the chainsaw were added to the mix. Since this combination allowed for a much more spontaneous sculptural approach than stone, and this was more in line with my nature, I bought my first chainsaw after visiting this exhibition and began experimenting. Years of work ecstasy followed, during which I took no consideration of myself, the tools, or my body. Everything conceivable, everything that appeared before my inner eye, wanted to be translated into three dimensions in wood. And since my largest saw is as big as I am and I had a stonemason's truck with a crane for many years, there were really no limits.
At some point, photography came back into the picture. Through an invitation to participate in the TRANSLACJE project in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland, I began to take photography more seriously again in 1997. Ultimately, it was just for myself. Not to show it publicly. Four years later, I showed a small selection of the photos taken in Piotrków Trybunalski in an exhibition. The opening was on September 11, 2011. For reasons that are well known, art historian and gallery owner Sabine Schwefel and I were the only visitors that day. Ms. Schwefel said with her characteristic seriousness: “Mr. Hamann! You have to do something with these photos! They're great!”
And since photos are often produced and displayed behind Plexiglas, at some point Plexiglas became a common and visible material in the studio. The impulse to work with plexiglass using chainsaws came logically after my stay in Australia in 2017. It was a similar spark as back in 1990 with wood. Suddenly, that irrepressible energy and desire to experiment, search, and discover was back. I was 55 at the time.
Today I am 62 and still work with chainsaws. And Plexiglas. However, the saws have become smaller and lighter and thus more age-appropriate.
7. Is there a particular place where you prefer to work?
For many years, I loved working in places that were completely new and unfamiliar to me. And since I never arrived at these new places with a finished concept, ultimately a straitjacket to avoid losing control in this new and unfamiliar place, but rather was open to new and unknown things, something from each place always flowed into my work. I found that incredibly exciting. It was exactly my thing. It didn't matter whether I was working with a camera or a chainsaw or was on the road. It didn't matter which country I was in. In 2007, I created wooden sculptures for an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur at a sawmill in Temerloh, Malaysia. The heat and humidity were like a bio sauna. Since I had developed my own way of using the chainsaw, the workers who were watching me initially said, “He doesn't even know how to use a chainsaw.” As the work progressed and suddenly one sculpture after another became visible around me, they said, “What he's doing is magic!”
8. Where do you see yourself and your art in the next five years?
I've already achieved a lot. Perhaps more than many others. Nevertheless, there are still things I would like to do and try. Unfortunately, my income situation is still completely unpredictable and therefore impossible to plan. If that could relax a little, I would find it very pleasant. Last year, I was very fortunate to be the first recipient of the FREE TO WORK scholarship from the RAINER BECK STIFTUNG Kunst und Leben. That helped me incredibly. During that time, I mostly didn't have to think about financing things. Instead, I could just do things. Try things. Experiment. Discard things. Try again. This scholarship came completely out of the blue. I am still very grateful for this time and the opportunities it brought!
Therefore: no expectations! What comes, comes. What doesn't, doesn't.
Nevertheless, it would be nice if the income side could become more regular, clearer, and thus more predictable overall.
And for myself, I hope that in five years' time I will still be able to do my work the way I imagine and want to. Unfortunately, the materials and tools necessary for my work have somehow become more difficult to obtain in recent years.
9. Do you have a “philosophy” that guides you in your creative expression?
I am who I am and I do what I do. Not as an egoist. Not as an eccentric. Rather, what others think or believe they know about me is irrelevant. My work is important to me. And, of course, my family comes first. I have always been curious and open-minded. And I still am. And when a new thought comes along, a new impulse, when I see something interesting, when something catches my eye, then I pursue it! It would be nice if it could stay that way for many years to come :)
10. What advice would you give to young artists who are just starting out?
In the past, there were a hundred of everything. A hundred good writers. A hundred good actors, dancers, musicians, artists, etc. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of everything worldwide. And tomorrow, millions! And when AI comes along and really takes off...
What is your intention? Do you want to become well-known? Famous! Maybe even wealthy? Then don't bother. Thousands before you have tried and failed. Most of them were broken, consumed by their own ambition. An artist's life is not straightforward. It does not go from one success to the next, always higher and higher. And if it does, the higher you are, the further you can fall.
If you think you have to do it, then do it. But don't do it believing that you can finance your life from the income. Find your niche. And do it. The rest will follow. Or it won't. Experience shows that this often has nothing to do with quality and talent. On the contrary. Perseverance is important. And the ability to suffer. And luck. Lots of luck. Being in the right place at the right time. It's best not to have any expectations. On the contrary. Just do it. And if something doesn't work out, don't despair. Don't blame anyone else. Don't question it. Keep at it. Do it. And if at some point it's no longer working, have the courage to admit it to yourself. Move on to something new. Knowing that you tried.