Image Courtesy of Claude Gerber & Acqua di Parma. Photography by Claude Gerber, Hair & Make-Up by Denise Grundmann, Photography Assistant Quirin Emanga.
The landscapes of our childhood often inhabit a special place in our memories. They might shape parts of our inner landscapes and accompany us for the rest of our lives. For Anna Kuen, the nature she grew up in close to the German Alps, is also intrinsically tied to her body of artistic work.
The Berlin-based artist and model is perpetually connecting to the motives and mythologies of the impressive surroundings of her early days, almost like a spiritual practice. She is intuitively oscillating between abstraction and figuration, much like nature itself. Through structures, colors and series she is exploring the in-between, which always remains somewhat unfathomable.
Wether one is religious or not, Kuen’s paintings are searching for something bigger than us, whatever you might call that. In the echoes of former representations and fragments lies the potential of a unique experience of its own, an experience possibly connecting to your earliest memories, a meditative state or someplace entirely different and new.
Image Courtesy of Studio Anna Kuen.
SLEEK: Originally you are from Bavaria, your artwork titles are in Bavarian dialect and phonetic spelling and your motives are often inspired by nature. Can you tell us a bit about the landscapes from growing up and the importance of your roots?
Anna Kuen: Yes, I was born in Bavaria and grew up close to the alps. Wherever you look there, you are surrounded by mesmerising nature and the impressive mountains are always in sight. I discovered that this had a huge impact on my creative work.
S: „Heimat“ has been a very central and hyper-charged theme throughout German art history and literature, many modern and post-modern artists and writers took this topic apart to craft it into something new. Do you feel influenced by that movement?
AK: As a German this topic cannot not help but influence one I think. It is a theme which definitely keeps on showing up in my creative process and works and I am exploring the meaning of ‘Heimat’ in my works since many years as well.
S: In your latest solo exhibition you depicted the Matterhorn, its overwhelming nature and almost transcendent experience. Are you spiritual and what role does spirituality play in your art?
AK: I guess I am a spiritual being, as deep down every human being is. I am very interested in the core questions of human existence, the questions which make us think and find explanations, the questions which most of the mythological stories are built on.
S: You’ve said before that you’ve journeyed from figuration to abstraction and are still oscillating somewhere in-between, what interests you in this particular interface of different forms?
AK: I am very interested in structures and color. My work has become more abstract over recent years, but I also like the contrast and tension it creates to face very abstract forms with figurative parts. It leaves space for imagination and also changes our perspective of space.
Image Courtesy of Studio Anna Kuen.
S: Your paintings seem to go on outside of the canvas, at the same time they are very direct, you also work a lot in series. Can you tell us a bit about the importance of this kind of practice?
AK: I usually work in series. It makes more sense to me to elaborate a topic through painting in different works. I never know how many works will be in one series, sometimes they go on and develop for a long time. Or I pick up an older topic and continue working on it. It is a very intuitive and fluid process and I usually start understanding it while working on a series of paintings.
S: Another main focus of your process is the idea of landscapes of the mind, can you elaborate on this. Are you trying to capture some form of reality representation or is it a pure intuition and dream-like sensation?
AK: It has both aspects in it I would say. The reality representation might come from some of the more figurative parts and the feeling of a horizon in my works. Even though I am shifting this perspective very often and trying to create a more open perception of the work. A big part of it is intuitive, it is created by memory and therefore gets this dream-like feeling.
S: How did Berlin change you and your work, also in comparison to Vienna, where you studied at the Academy for Fine Arts?
AK: I am not sure if it changed me as a person a lot but I feel more free in Berlin. I was living in Vienna for many years and after I finished my studies I had the urge to move, live and work somewhere else. It happens to be Berlin for now, I like my little studio and the possibilities this city has for creative people. Ideally I would work and live close to the sea, maybe this will come true one day.
Image Courtesy of Studio Anna Kuen.
S: You are also working as an international model, how do these two worlds of yours inform each other?
AK: They are extremely different and very similar at the same time. I enjoy traveling and working with people I have never met before, but I also value my creative silent time by myself in the studio. I need to create, it has always been like this in my life. Modeling gives me some sort of freedom, to be able to paint and create without pressure. I think it is very healthy for any creative person to sometimes leave the premises, work somewhere else and come back to it. At least for me this seems to work.
S: Last year you collaborated with La Bande Berlin on a little capsule collection of silk pieces with your design prints. How was that process for you? Do you want to continue merging fashion and art in the future?
AK: We created a very beautiful capsule collection with parts of my paintings on silk. I enjoyed the process a lot and keep finding it very interesting and beautiful to see the artwork move and change shape while being worn. Silk catches and reflects light very differently than canvas and the works seem fluid and even more alive. I think the crossroad between art and fashion is a unique and rich field which can lead to great collaborations.
S: Finally, can you tell us bit about what you are currently working on?
AK: I am working on my last series about the matterhorn and already have some new topics in mind as well. I definitely will continue on the big canvases but am also working on smaller works for a while, which is new for me and a field I am developing right now.