Sibyll in an artist and musician who resides in Cologne, Germany. I got the pleasure of finding out a lot about Sybill and her work through this interview. For further information about this artist you can read her work online at http://www.sibyllkalff.com. In the meantime, please enjoy reading our discussion below:
LC: What is the concept behind your current series, “Tents in the Sky”? How did you come up with that idea?
SK: The “Bitter ‘n’ Beautiful” text by my friend Dennis Leroy sums a lot up about the background of this series (http://sibyllkalff.com/texts-TentInTheSky.htm) I started that series, dreaming me back in a place I had in Cologne years ago, that I always called my “tent in the sky” and old attic. I rented a little room that came with an attic that was covered with white linen. When it was windy, it moved and made this beautiful sound. I had attached to the little room, which was basically my workroom office, internet cafe and guest room, another room, built by a friend. It was like in a big big tent. I always dreamt of having this really renovated a real additional living space. I had windows facing a rather big backyard other houses in a good distance, the walls were as thick as can be and for years I never had the feel I had any neighbors in miles around me. I had my “tent in the sky” for nearly 4 years.
LC: How has traveling effected your artwork?
SK:
I always loved to travel and I have many travel sketchbooks. Apart from travel diaries and other objects, photos and I always loved to work while traveling and of course in a way, I always traveled working on my arts and music anyways. You could be caught in a place, but are nevertheless traveling – spiritually, mentally in memories or in daydreams – and of course travels inspired many series of mine, For example the series “1000 opunzien” (http://sibyllkalff.com/texts-dieweitesuchen-en.htm) I started in winter listening to Jimi Hendrix and of course many other bands I loved. Since it was winter I was missing the hot days in the extremadura, where we spent months hoboing around which there were 1000s of opunzien around( http://sibyllkalff.slide.com/) All other cultures and music and art and places and life was a never ending inspiration for my own art and music – and the languages, people, I insanely love landscapes and nature and to be one with it and to live outdoors for months and of course all the travels made a very good counterpart to any live in a city and temporarily, not nomadic. Nomadism was the original human life form, long before people had fixed settlements and I think nearly every human being has a natural instinct to move, to travel, and to load up the camels. Being on the road, you constantly experience new situations.
A very beautiful text illustrating this is written by my friend Abigail Doan (http://sibyllkalff.com/texts-leaves-seeds.htm) Another series is “Traveling is my Passport Series” as well connected to my wish to abolish all immigration laws worldwide.
I fly back between Germany and NYC, USA for more then 10 years. NYC was always my hometown , especially the blocks around Tompkins Square. I never wanted to leave, but due to a 3 months tourist visa, I had to.
Daniela Mayer, a German cultural journalist made a very good radio feature about the topic of passports – the history, cultural meaning and all connected to “the passport” You can download the German version of the radio play and find an English translation with all my other passport series related links at: http://sibyllkalff.com/texts-interviews.htm
LC: Do you have an overall theme to your work?
SK: I once said 20 years ago in an interview, yes, the love for life… and it-s beauty - insanity, despair, bitterness – just all facettes of the dance of life till it leads to the dance of death. and to express that in all possible artforms, as I really over the years worked in nearly all media. drawing though was allways the basic that I allways came back to, like an “artistic home after explorations in other fields” and I love drawings, because you can imagine and phantasize about all, you can can have the smalles piece of paper and create universes, huge exhibition halls full of works and it-s fast and direct and even more in the moment then other media for me. But my body of work includes sculpture, paintings, computerart, design, visual poetry, photography, language, poetry, writing, performance, film, multimedia, music, theater, curating, science, philosophy, and many other forms of artistic expression.
I have no overall theme but that and I love to quote Charles Mingus: ” I always love to play the truth of the moment. The reason it is so difficult is, it is changing all the time”. In a way, my work always tries to express the truth of the moment, no matter what truth that is in any given moment. I love to improvise and experiment, like my music, we never wrote songs (we played some pieces maybe 3 times or very rarely played a song) but all my music is as well, the moment, the very moment and it-s expression of manifestation, that-s why i all my life loved zen, buddhism, taoism – you can find a very good text by the curator of the collection”man and death” eva schuster about my series “deathdances” at: http://sibyllkalff.com/texts-totentaenze-en.htm
Maybe one could formulate it as the manifestation and illustration of “the celebration of life and death” and “the journey from alpha to omega” and all that you experience on the way. in a way audiovisual diaries. and of course my art is allways politcal as life is political, just by living.
LC: I know that you also play music. Do you find art and music to be similar mediums? Is the creative process the same for both visual art and music?
SK: I have the same approach to both. It’s all the same for me. Each and every medium has it’s own specifics, but I play like I draw and I draw like I play. I spent and wasted alot of time long ago,
To ask me, ‘Is it visual art or is it music’ ,which is stupid, as it all inspires eachother mutually and in a way cannot be seperated at all and is all one part of expression with different connotations and possibilites. You hear music and see visual art (of course v.v. is possible, too) but in a way it’s all the same expression. A flower just grows… it “has to” … of course with the right amount of water, earth and light it grows happily with the wrong one it dies. But it “has to grow” and it’s beautiful as animals are always beautiful. It rains. It just rains. And that’s 1000 songs that you can listen to and love. I always loved to spend many hours and to sleep in the extremadura in fields next to flocks of sheep, that had different tuned bells around their necks. and it was like the most wonderful music you could not compose or force into existence. my discography at: http://sibyllkalff.com/music-publications.htm. My main musicpage: http://www.myspace.com/sibyllk
LC: How has the recent influx of artist moving to Berlin from all over the world changed things?
SK:I think that Berlin at the moment experiences a great time for all artists which of course was and is connected to the simple fact, that even with the euro, that basically ruined everyone’s existence and made it hard to survive for nearly everyone. Although you can still afford space in Berlin and that there is some space left, that of course a changing, too. But nevertheless, I think that Berlin right now is the happening art town in Germany. I’ve been stranded for 2 years again in Cologne. I lived for months in Berlin in the 90ies, but have not been there since.
LC: Do you think Germany as a whole, is supportive of the arts in Berlin or are there mixed viewpoints?
SK: You can have more then various viewpoints on Germany. There are always countries being more supportive of the arts then Germany. The Netherlands had an incredibly good program, but the cultural budgets went downhill due to an economic disaster.
20 years ago, there were more then 20 people working in the cultural department for the arts in Cologne (as well responsible for funding, grants etc.) Now it is down to 3; This as a metaphor for the general situation of cultural funding in Germany and being supportive of the arts. I am sure that all Berlin’s arts get the best possible funding and support, since it’s the capital.
