Kunstkatalog Stefanie Brehm

63 You plan to add a new dimension to your work with glass. What inspired you to choose this material? From the outset, glass and ceramic are closely related since glaze is basically glass. Detaching the outer skin of the ceramic to let it stand in its own right fascinates me. Polyurethanes also have a glassy look. Observers often mistake plastic for glass. This alone prompted me to think about working with the material. I don’t mean to replace polyurethane with glass, but see glass as an additional material. I’m very open anyway to the idea of extending my repertoire of materials in the future. My focus is always on the forms and colours that penetrate the materials in an individual way. As you say yourself, colours play a key role in your work. Do they have a specific role, are they the product of a drive for perfection, a matter of chance or sheer intuition? I see colours as particles that convey something and have their own vibes, so I work very intuitively with them. When I’m focusing on a column, first of all I try to sense how high it is and how it feels to the touch, especially in terms of volume. Then I try to work out what manner of colouring would suit it, like lots of small details or broad swathes. That’s usually how I first approach the process. Only then do I decide on a definite interplay of colours that I think works for the column or poly piece. How, and in which quantities, I apply the colours and which technique I use are small steps taken one at a time. I select the colour and think about how far it should go and how dynamic the action should be, and then it just happens. Applying the glaze is not without risk. How many attempts do you have? Sometimes it’s a one-shot affair, although you can still react up to a certain point. I can’t spray on hundreds of layers because the glaze would just run off, but I can check some processes. If I realise that I‘ve overdone it, I do something about it right away. And that‘s how the game goes until I think I’ve got it right. At the moment it seems as if artists are bent on adding political messages to their works. You don‘t appear to embrace this trend at all. How would you classify your works? I always make a point of leaving my works open to interpretation, which doesn‘t mean that I’m apolitical, quite the contrary. I take a deep interest in what is going on in the world, but I don‘t feel an urge to draw attention to these happenings in my art. I want the observer to be able to feel something of me by looking at my works. Of course, they can‘t determine what I think about this topic or the other, but maybe they can identify a certain fundamental mood or attitude that I would like to convey. I’m not obsessed with reading external things into my works, my inspiration comes from within. This is maybe also reflected in the centricity of my works, the concentration on mass and form. Amid the complexity of information and messages I always try to create harmony and not to let myself be distracted. What matters is how I (can) exercise a positive influence on the world and not so much about what everyone else does.