Anett Frey
Kusterdingen, Germany
Social Media
Instagram
Website
anett-frey.de
How would you describe your work? What inspires you?
My work is silent at first. It arises out of observation. From the fathoming of haptics, surface, structures, an overall picture develops. This is important for my art. From touch, sensation, perception, an emotional surface is created. Mostly through the etching needle. The needle violates the medium zinc. Delicate, careful, brutal, rutting lines, line networks, structures, surfaces arise. To my sensation or the request equal. A reflection of the pure. Somehow to that where everything began or ended. Wind, fur, stones, leaves, feathers, dead birds, animals. I try to capture them in origin, often through drawing. To capture the moment. To tell the momentary state. To penetrate through surfaces, to make the inner visible.
Can you speak about your process?
The moment of the process begins with the searching line that digs into the material. Again removed, hatchings pile up on top of each other...a network of strokes carries the motif and the enveloping becomes visible. Or the process begins with the exact transfer of what is seen, a kind of meditative rhythm until the end. In the drawing, the etching and sometimes with oil paint. Until it is completely quiet in me. Even as a child I was interested in dead animals that I found, nature, stones, the seasons, and what happens to everything when it becomes transient. As well as moments with people.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books or quotes?
Louise Bourgeous, Francoise Gilot, Alberto Giacometti Impress me with their strength, they never gave up, defied the process, faced it, over and over again. But I am not attached and identify with artistic personalities. It’s an impression from the edge, like the silence in Morandi, or Sean Scully.
I love reading artists’ biographies, it’s nice to learn the origin of art and how everything is connected, why the artist, the artist does exactly what she does or has to do. And I love good movies, about artists, the art and processes, that the process is mostly in the childish beginnings. For example, like Segantini Whoever deals with art, seeks his own process - you can’t shortcut or bypass this process. Every small step, backward step, every failure, fall belongs to it. Just like the successes. It is a constant up and down, a constant questioning. The process does not give rest. But you can find peace in artistic activity. And with time you gain confidence that after the down, the up will come again. And you need patience. A lot of patience to endure yourself and your work. But that is the most beautiful thing in the world. It feels alive every day.
Any more thoughts about art, creativity, or anything else you would like to share?
I would like to see more support, better pay, more and easier grants, more opportunities of financial support to work freely and creatively, to live and work as an artist . I succeed very modestly. It takes an enormous amount of additional energy. Every day anew. I have the good fortune as a lecturer to pass on the art as I experience it. It’s wonderful to open up this space to people, but that means a lot of cuts in my own work, a lot of preparations for many jobs to be able to live on it.
