06 August 2009
Upon his return from a trip in Japan, Wolfgang Stiller was arrested for no reason in China, where he was living at the time. That experience sent him back to Germany after having lived abroad for 10 years. Wolfgang is an artist. His latest work, Matchstickmen, is a poignant reminder of the passing time. It is a strong and complex work, quite different from his Jellyfish drawings, yet equally meditative. He is also an identical twin and loves film. Bambi, the first film he ever watched, is still on his top 10 list.
PP. You recently returned home to Germany after being away for 10 years. Where have you been? Why?
WS. When I was 39 I thought I need some new fresh experience in my life. Berlin by then wasn’t too exciting – not the way it is today. So I decided to go to New York after I had an artist residency at ISCP in New York. I lived there for almost 8 years but realised that my art production was suffering due the extremely tough living conditions over there. The price is too high to pay for just being there. Also I experienced a total ignorance within the art scene concerning artists coming from Europe. Everyone was only interested with whom one shows. There was hardly the question of what is your work about. But it was an interesting experience anyway.
A Chinese artist friend of mine went back to China and I came with him to check it out. 3 months later I packed everything and moved to Beijing which was exciting and had an amazing gold rush atmosphere in terms of contemporary art. All of a sudden I could realise huge installations again and everybody there was so curious about foreign artists. I was professor for the NYU in Shanghai which was a great experience too. Unfortunately I got arrested – for no reason – and that experience made me realise that the system over there is still pretty wild and unpredictable. All together I am very grateful for those 10 years being out of my country and culture since I developed a new perspective towards my own roots.
PP. What do you mean you got arrested. What happened?
WS. I went to Japan for a meeting with a gallery in Tokyo. When I came back in the night to Beijing airport I was held there for 3 hours and then they drove me to a jail. They took everything away from me. No telephone calls allowed and they threw me in a smelly cell where I had to share the night with cockroaches. The authorities never answered any of my questions and the next day they put me back on a plane to Tokyo. They even paid for it. The final reason they gave me was “you are not welcome here.” I am not sure if my Matchstickmen which I showed in a gallery in Shanghai or my Mass Grave I created for a show in Beijing was the reason for not being welcome or if I was just unlucky because they cleaned the city of foreigners when they prepared for the Olympics. Four months later I went in again through Hong Kong as they are still kind of moderate. I guess I would have stayed longer if this incident didn’t happen. But somehow it spoiled the fun.
PP. That is so shocking, but certainly because of it, you came back to Berlin. How does it feel to be back after 10 years? Are you pleased to be back?
WS. Yes, it was shocking back then. Still, I like to go back to China once in a while since there is a certain kind of anarchy and freedom within this rigid system, which is very different from western societies.
Berlin has made an astonishing transformation towards the good. It used to be kind of provincial before the wall came down. I am amazed by the variety of foreign languages I hear on the streets nowadays. Berlin is – compared to other cities of its size – a very relaxed environment with lots of surprising and charming unique spots. It is a lively and creative city which gives artists enough space to create their artwork instead of raising questions of how to survive, like in NY for instance. It still has amazingly low rents and one can find great studios and apartments in the center of the city. After struggling in New York I really enjoy the possibilities and the relaxing pace of Berlin. I can focus on my art production.
The art scene became quite alive during the last 5 years. It took a while, but finally Berlin made it into the club of international cities. So I am really happy being back here and think it will stay my home base for quite a while.
PP. Lets talk about your art practice. What are you working on this very moment?
WS. At the moment I am working on two different things. One is the installation, the Matchstickmen. I started those last year and think they have still some exploration potential. I was doing some dummies for a movie in China last year – 50 realistic dead Chinese – used for the Nanjing massacre during the Japanese occupation. I kept those head molds in my studio. A little bit later the idea for the Matchstickmen popped up. That’s the beauty about creating art. There is stuff laying around in the studio and all of a sudden an idea jumps into your mind.
The other work I am doing right now are those Jellyfish drawings. Since my sculpture installations always take a while, I really enjoy drawing. It is a form of meditation, relaxation for me. I go scuba diving and was always fascinated by jellyfish. They have something incredibly mellow and elegant in their movement and appearance, despite the fact that they are a so called “low life form.” The variety of shapes they can take on is pretty amazing. Since I normally draw with a pencil, black on white, it was tempting to try out the opposite. One has to think differently since light, not lines, create the shape.
PP. They look as if they are drawn on a blackboard, like those we used to have in school. It fascinates me how “simple” drawings can have such a strong effect. They are beautiful. Matchstickmen are human-size (in length), aren’t they? When against a wall, they look poignant, difficult to ignore. And there is also a matchbox. This work could be seen, in many ways, like the end of one’s life, death, even in relation to crime, murder, war… What does the work represent to you?
WS. Yes. That was the idea to make them look like they are drawn on a blackboard everyone used to have in school. I like the idea of this temporary moment it includes. Wiping it off easily, traces of former notes shining through. The jellyfish drawings are indeed more about beauty than anything else. No hidden meaning.
It is definitely a different story with the Matchstickmen. They have different sizes which go from 150 cm up to 240 cm. All faces are taken from real people. Exclusively Chinese so far which is plainly a result of starting the work over in China while I was living there. I had two things in mind when I did them. One is the more serious aspect of a social criticism, and the other one a funny aspect. The Matchstickmen could be seen as “burned out people.” Burned out by its system, society. It is not only meant for China; I guess it applies to western society as well. The way we treat people, ourselves.
But coming back to China… when I was there they were building the “Nest,” the new Olympic stadium. The government used thousands of migrant workers who worked like animals for 2 Euros a day. They slept in open tent-like places next to the street. Once the stadium was finished, the government kicked them all out from Beijing so the foreign journalists wouldn’t see those “ugly poor creatures.” Those people worked like 16 hours a day and by the age of 45 – 50, they are totally burnt out. But I don’t want the Matchstickmen only to be seen that way. The other aspect is the more funny one. In German the word matchstick head – Streichholzkopf - relates closer to the human head, but no one actually thinks of a human head.
So I wanted to take this literally. I guess this works better in German language. The matchboxes were added when I started to go from single matchsticks to big installations. They can be seen as coffins, at least some people see them that way, or simply as formal elements, which correspond with the organic shapes of the matchsticks. I keep them simple without logos since I don’t want to push too far in one direction. I would rather have people approach them their own way instead of making a big statement. When I build up the installations I try to make it look like someone played around with matches and tossed them around. Sometimes I build up little architectures, arrange the matchsticks as riddles or build Chinese characters.
As a smoker I always have been annoyed about the nasty habit of people putting back used matchsticks into the box. One needs to fish around those used matches to find one which hasn’t been used yet, ending up with dirty fingers. A worldwide annoyance, found in almost every culture. So I hope to keep the balance of this work being meaningful and still offering some space to laugh.
PP. So is smoking your only bad habit?
WS. I guess I don’t make much of an “enfant terrible” in the art world. Never pissed in a fireplace.
PP. Never? Not even once?
WS. I wish I had in some houses in the Hamptons but, well, I didn’t since I never drink enough to lose control.
PP. Why houses in Hamptons?
WS. That’s where Pollock did it.
PP. Do you work a lot? Are you one of those artists who never get out of their studios?
WS. I used to be. I would spend 12 hours or more in the studio. Nowadays I take it a bit easier since I am not in my twenties anymore. Doing sculptures is exhausting and since I have no assistants and my body is responding differently to the hard work from when I was younger, I need to be more careful about my resources. Also I realised that networking – like it or not – is a necessary part of the job. One can do great works in the studio but no one pays attention to it if they don’t know about your existence. I still spend around 6 hours every day in the studio, a little bit more when a show is coming up.
PP. What do you do when you are not working or networking?
WS. Well, where to start? I am addicted to movies. I watch a movie almost every night, having now around 1500 DVDs. I used to work as a projectionist in a film theater in Berlin. My twin brother is a movie director and lots of friends are in the movie business. So there are quite some ties to the movie world. Besides that I read a lot, mostly novels. Novels and scientific related books. My works are related to science a lot – especially the older ones. I go scuba diving because I love the crazy surreal underwater world. Music, naturally. Love good food. Terribly spoiled tongue, so I cook almost every day. Luckily I don’t gain any weight so I eat without regrets. I travel a lot to foreign countries, and, almost forgot, I go and see exhibitions.
PP. Wow, so you have a twin just like me. Do you get along?
WS. Yes, and we are actually identical twins. We look very much alike still. We are very close and do lots of things together, except working.
PP. Do you think Germans have a sense of humour?
WS. That’s funny. Yes, some of them have a great sense of humour. I know we are accused of being stiff and humorless, but that’s wrong. Good German humor is very dry, full of irony and very hard to get if one doesn’t speak German well since it is a lot about fine little nuances of the language. It is about who says it. One thing can be very funny depending on who says it while it is nothing when someone else says it. So yes, German humor can be tremendously funny.
PP. Tell me a joke.
WS. I don’t really know a joke. But I can tell you what I consider funny. There is a scene in a Woody Allen movie where he walks in a bended position with a large baguette and a voice from the off says: “My father is living in Paris now”. That makes me laugh.
PP. [Laughs] Are you single or in a relationship?
WS. Married.
PP. What are you reading now?
WS. I am reading a wonderful book by Louis Auchincloss, “Her Infinite Variety,” which is a beautiful and witty book about the possibilities of a woman in American upper class during the 30s and 40s in New York State. It is a portrait of a woman who tries to find out what to do besides charity and being supportive of her husband’s position in society. I really like it so far, just a third through it yet.
PP. As you love films, give me your top 10 list.
WS. Ok, here we go:
Warm water under the red bridge, Shohei Imamura
The Bow, Kim Ki Duk
Godfather, part I, Coppola
Almost every movie from Pedro Almodovar
Redbeard, Kurosawa
Taxi Driver, Scorsese
Lady Eve, Preston Sturgess
Bambi (my first movie ever)
Tokyo Stories, Ozu
The Philadelphia Story with Cary Grant (almost any of his movies)
PP. Did you cry while watching Bambi?
WS. Of course.
PP. What is your biggest dream, or two?
WS. That one is very easy.
1) To create great artworks, and don’t bend for the fucking art market.
2) To make a decent living from my art without bending for the fucking art market.
Text: © Predrag Pajdic
Images: © Wolfgang Stiller
