Reggie Voigtländer
multidisciplinary artist
As a multi disciplinary artist I operate in several fields. My work becomes concrete through sculptural installations, often site or event specific. Also small objects, Chinese ink paintings, photography, performance art, (digital) video/audio and fine art prints.
Multidisciplinary
I’m a multidisciplinary artist: The disciplines I work in vary but also intertwine in multimedia installations, using moving image like video and animation. These works often contain a sculptural and a painterly component and sometimes interactivity. This can take place during realisation or as part of the installed.
My static sculptural installations frequently incorporate the concept of change, taking place during exhibition. Concept lies at the basis of my works, that are mostly site or event specific. My Chinese ink paintings expose the use of intuition and experiment, which is also a large part of how my work comes into existence.
This also applies for my photographic works which reflect the importance of traveling as a form of ‘refreshing the self’ and connecting with the world. This way of experiencing and constant reshaping is reflected in all works. Connecting is also one of the basic principles when it comes to using various disciplines as an artist, which is worked out in large total installations. But also in compositions of small objects or performance art.
I’m also a critical artist. With my work, I question general assumptions and investigate universal aspects in relation to human existence and our (in)comprehension about it.
photo: Exhibiton '40 Titles', Chinese European Art Center, Xiamen, China, 2014
What, why and how...
After graduating in the directions of painting, drawing and graphic art, I soon felt the need to work outside framed borders. This resulted in(interactive) installations and environments.
Critical
As an artist I get involved through addressing important urgent matters and by influencing in order to stimulate change for the better, regarding the world. Nature plays an important factor in it. My art practice is a way to resist. I use my creativity as a commitment to generate awareness regarding universal aspects of human existence and possible understanding and misunderstanding about this. Both for myself and in relation to the other.
Process
I believe in diversity and xenogamy. The media I use are related to interactions I seek with my surrounding and activities that I'm engaging in. Everything we know is interconnected yet not always perceived as such. On the one hand I like to keep some distance between individual works, let them be what they are within their own 'constellation'. On the other hand I want to emphasise on relationship. Therefor the work is developed towards situations of multiplicity, sometimes as (total) installations or environments.
Nature
An important part of the creation of the work is the relationship with nature regarding all matters. The works mostly include a ‘nature’ component or context or at the least by reference. The importance and influence of nature, or perhaps even as a fundamental preposition, is expressed by presence of or references to 'landscape' or things therefrom. Frequently in conjunction with everyday life, using elements that refer to human presence or absence like furniture. But also (personal) moments captured by video and photography. The process which includes many components and sometimes different media like photography, video, performance, digital work, drawings and paintings is often worked out in (interactive) sculptural installations / environments. They have been presented in Museums, galleries and renowned art spaces internationally, from Europe to China and even Armenia.
Action & Immateriality
This basic attitude regularly translates into 'presence' combined with certain 'actions', taking place within a certain space or setting, including public space. The passer-by can exercise influence or not. Or is invited to participate and contribute. Sometimes it also takes place within the personal realm, leading to photographic work, or video (installations).
Versatility
I permit myself an extensive versatility, which allows me to switch from one medium to another easily. It is a way of opening up and expand to create opportunity, understanding and transformation. The various elements are processed in so-called 'total installations' existing of different 'sub-installations'. Their relationship is often expressed through landscape-oriented artistic language. Installations within are often also composed of different, separately understandable sub-elements. I welcome external influences as part of the process such as the use of gravity and light, which in essence is a visible part of the work itself.
Connecting and travelling
All of my projects are interconnected and so are my Chinese ink paintings which I started to create after a residency in China in 2014. Born in Germany and migrated to the Netherlands at the age of six, included repeated traveling between my mother's homeland and my father's (my place of birth). This involved watching the landscape change from mountains to flatland, large city to small town and vice verse. That way I developed an understanding of space and place, with all specifics and the connected whole, which was of big influence regarding the way I began to understand the world and still do.
Traveling is an essential part of it. It is during these journeys, big or small and the interactions with nature that I connect to the world or the universe itself, like many of us do. This is also reflected in the way I like to connect several separate parts within a whole or the use of moving image as through video and animations. Or the way I like to connect with others through interactive works or sometimes interventions and performances.