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Drachen Foundation |
DF: You are from…?
C: From Cologne in Germany.
DF: When was the first time you saw a kite? Do you
remember?
C: The first time was when I was a child. There was
a company that sold coffee and once they gave away
plastic eagles as a special offer.
DF: Eagles!
C: And mine flew super. I know lots of people my age
who had these plastic kites when they were little.
DF: The same one?
C: Yes, and it flew superbly. We took it with us to
Holland on the beach, and as a child it was totally
fascinating. After that, though, my interest in kites
came to a halt. I didn’t pursue it any further or anything.
It didn’t come up again as a theme for me until much
later.
DF: At the lecture night you mentioned that when you
met Frank you started to get involved with kites again.
C: Right, so I met Frank in college and we studied
the same subject area.
DF: Which subject area?
C: Frank studied object design and I did more graphic
design and video design. Right before I graduated we
got to know each other better and he kept talking to
me over and over again about kites and I thought, yeah,
yeah, whatever. But then at some point everything got
more serious, also between us, and he invited me to
come to a kite festival in Thailand. He asked me if
I wanted to come. And I thought it over and finally
was like, “Yeah, OK.” And that was the first time that
I really saw all that was out there. And also the festival
took place in this fantastic country, in Bangkok where
the king’s palace was. It was all so amazing!! Like
in a fable, it made a great big impression on me. That
was when I first understood that a kite isn’t a toy.
In Europe kites are considered mostly as toys for children,
and nothing more. But cultures and sports and other
things are hidden in them as well. At first I was very
meek, at night, always standing at the edge of the
field with big eyes. Then we started traveling together
a lot in Europe, France, USA, and Canada.
DF: To different festivals?
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| Yoshizumi, Nobuhiko |
C: To different festivals, exactly. And I always
helped Frank with the flying. It was kind of stupid
because I was always known as ‘Frank’s girlfriend.’
But somehow I made use of the time. It was definitely
about five years where I just watched and helped. I
also had a stressful job, where there wasn’t much time
left over to do something on my own. That changed one-and-a-half,
or two years ago. That’s when I very consciously said
I want to have time for this and that’s when my work
slowly started. That’s when I made paper and bamboo
kites because it was easy: it was the material that
I had right there. I don’t have a studio; I work at
home. I have a tiny little apartment with a workspace
and computer. The table is two meters wide, and half
of it is computer. There is one meter of space left
to build on. Therefore, my kites are around this size.
When Frank, who up until that point had worked much
more with material, and not as much with paper, saw
what I had made he said, “That will never fly.” And
I said, “We’ll see!”
DF: How did you come to using paper?
C: In kindergarten we simply learned how to use it.
It’s the classic material for making kites. Anyone
you ask will tell you this. “Have you ever built a
kite?” “Yes, out of paper and wooden slats.” Also,
I found very beautiful paper with fibers in it, similar
to what we have here. I thought it was really great,
also how it looked when the structure was lit from
the back. And with the bamboo, I worked it totally
wrong in the beginning. Frank gave me a few of his
leftovers and said, “Try this. That’s fine.” But I
processed everything completely wrong. Split it wrong
and everything. Then Robert showed me at some point
how to do it better.
DF: At a kite festival.
C: Yes, I think it was in Canada. It was his birthday
and we were sitting together and he showed us how to
use the knife and how you can simply lay the leather
on your knee and pull it through the rod. And actually
that was the beginning. Since August Frank has a bigger
workshop and I have a place to work there. And there
I don’t have to be considerate. If it gets filthy,
no big deal, floor, everything. I can do much more
now. I like to daub paint blots in different colors
and inevitably it sprays all over… At home that’s not
OK, but at Frank’s it’s OK. And the most recent thing
we’ve done together is that he sewed me kites out of
spinnaker nylon, because I can’t sew well, and then
I painted them. It was really great. He made a few
for me and now they keep getting bigger. But it’s so
much fun. You can get out the paint brushes and put
your momentum and strength into them. I like that.
DF: What does this workshop mean to you?
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| Anke Sauer |
C: The workshop. First it’s great to see how the others
work because we meet only rarely at festivals. At the
festivals you see what others have made, but don’t
know how they came about.
DF: Only the end product.
C: Exactly. You see a kite, and you can look at it
and figure, he glued this onto this or knotted it this
way, but you still don’t know how the idea for the
kite developed. That’s what I think is nice to see
here is how each person has their own rhythm. And also
to see how one person focuses on a single piece consistently
until the end, while another may make many different
parallel pieces. That’s what’s nice and naturally it’s
something special to be able to spend a whole week
long working on a piece. Otherwise, because of work,
it’s only possible to work now and then during the
evenings or on the weekend.
DF: You get distracted over and over.
C: Yes, and here you can pursue the whole thing much
more intensively.
DF: Could you say a few words about what you’ve done
or started with here?
C: Well, that’s difficult. Normally, I don’t make any
sketches beforehand.
DF: Really, no sketches?
C: Actually not. Rather I just start and see how the
material behaves. A kite normally develops out of that.
But here it took me a while to get into the work. And
I did look at my sketchbook. I had made a logo for
a friend, had drawn a person at some point, and looking
at it I thought, “OK, it’s good as a little jumpstart.”
That is the little black and white one with the eyes.
But actually it’s unusual that I looked in my sketchbook
and took something from it. The stuff I’m working on
now is much freer and emerged on its own accord.
DF: Experiments…
C: Yes, and also very different from each other. With
this one I made a little model beforehand, and then
this emerged coincidently. And then I tried it a bit
bigger. I actually never do that either. So, these
are new methods for me, somehow.
DF: Rather than sketches, do you normally make a small
model and then enlarge it?
C: No, actually not at all. I simply start. I notice
that there are shapes or colors that I like that reappear
over and over again in my work. These appear in sketches
as well, but that’s more a sign that I’m occupied with
that theme at the moment. So, I don’t draw a kite out
exactly before I make it and lay it on the paper and
then enlarge it. I don’t do that.
DF: Instead you let yourself be inspired by the material.
C: Yes, I also like… for example, Scotty always threw
his leftover paper in the trashcan. And they were so
nice that I borrowed the trash can and took them out
and now I have two “trash kites”.
DF: So you can call them “trash kites.” I like that.
C: It’s the same concept we’ve used when we’ve done
workshops with children. I always think it’s totally
important to show them (and yourself) that kite building
doesn’t just mean going to the store, buying a kit
with everything already inside it and starting to build.
Rather we can do something with what we have, what
we might even consider trash.
DF: You can use it.
C: Exactly, you can even make something beautiful out
of it. Leftovers are actually easier to work with than
when I have expensive material lying on the table.
It’s always like, “Oooohh so expensive!” Somehow it’s
harder to get started on. But if you think, “Oh, leftovers,
sure, no problem,” you can get started right away.
It’s just easier.
DF: That’s the nice thing about paper, maybe.
C: Yes, with material, what Frank does, where he always
has to finish the kites, I don’t get it: this step
of converting raw material to kite. What he cuts away
or doesn’t need, that’s something else, entirely.
DF: I think that’s it. Do you have anything else you’d
like to say?
C: Maybe an interesting question. I remember that at
some point, I think I was with Peter Lynn and Robert,
we were sitting together and we were talking about
why people thought it was so nice to fly kites. “What
is so nice about that? Why do people keep doing it?”
They shared such nice ideas. The great thing is that
you sense the strength in the line. Sure you see something
beautiful, something unusual, but the great thing or
the fascinating thing is the strength of the wind that
you don’t otherwise see. You can suddenly hold it in
your hand. You can also control it to a certain extent.
It’s like this: one force holds me on the ground and
the other lifts me up a bit. I think their thoughts
are very nice.
DF: Yes, this metaphor.
C: It’s not only the fantasy that when you see a kite
flying you break away and hover in the sky. It’s also
a very physical experience. You are standing there
and …wupf! You become a little bit lighter.
DF: Great.
C: But that’s not from me. Peter thought of that.
DF: And you overheard it and stole it.
C: (Laughs) I wanted to say one more thing about why
I like paper, bamboo and these streak or blot graphics.
It’s always fascinated me that paper is actually very
light. It is easily ruined. You handle it carefully.
It’s not fragile, but still somehow a delicate material,
and bamboo has always seemed that way to me too. You
know, these thin rods that couldn’t endure much. That’s
why I was fascinated when I saw how others handled
the kites. I realized that they could endure a lot
more than I expected. They’re incredibly strong. Although
it’s delicate it can endure a lot of wear, including
strong winds and even falling on the ground. That’s
some of what I’d like to express with the graphics
that I set on the paper: that it’s not a delicate piece,
that has to stay pinned to the wall and not be touched,
but rather it possesses a definite power. That’s it.
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