Takeover: #104 - Nikki Kirpestein
Nikki Kirpestein: Instagram / Website
#104 (9/3 - 15/3 2020) written by Anisa Demirci and Cheyenne Pattiwaël
Nikki Kirpestein, graduating this year in Fine Art at AKI, Enschede, would describe trouble as a turbulent wave. It is something we cannot grasp with our rational minds, this wavelength of the symphony. It is a form of non-rational feeling. Trouble can be a motivation of transformation and change. In our ever changing time and being, transformation is needed and Nikki explores this in her work.
Art for Nikki is the ultimate kind of freedom, a way of living and doing, a purpose, a needy thing to do. She cannot see herself without art and making art.
In her work, she balances on and explores the line between contrasts, like the conceptual and the intuitive aspect of making art. In her own words, she forces them to marry. “The whole process is like breathing to me. It’s about the flow of creating something and not knowing the end of it.” This also reflects on her way of working with different materials and media, like we see in her images that seamlessly blend photography and painting. Nikki wants to create a fluid image.
Without imposing this on people, her work is about transferring an experience and a feeling. She wants her work to be felt, for it could ignite these feelings, experiences and questions in the beholder.
She moves from a personal relation to the work, to having a distance to it, after it has been made. By firstly being the creator and then transforming into the beholder, making art is a very personal experience, for she becomes one with it.
Sometimes Nikki gets shocked and scared of what she makes, but she tries to be non-judgmental about her work and to accept it for what it is. To her, it is most beautiful when it devours you, when it is transformative. The feeling has to be right.
The most important thing is to experience, to feel (through) and to not be scared. Open yourself up to the experience!
“How do you look at it, how do you want to perceive my work? How do you see it?”
Art for Nikki is the ultimate kind of freedom, a way of living and doing, a purpose, a needy thing to do. She cannot see herself without art and making art.
In her work, she balances on and explores the line between contrasts, like the conceptual and the intuitive aspect of making art. In her own words, she forces them to marry. “The whole process is like breathing to me. It’s about the flow of creating something and not knowing the end of it.” This also reflects on her way of working with different materials and media, like we see in her images that seamlessly blend photography and painting. Nikki wants to create a fluid image.
Without imposing this on people, her work is about transferring an experience and a feeling. She wants her work to be felt, for it could ignite these feelings, experiences and questions in the beholder.
She moves from a personal relation to the work, to having a distance to it, after it has been made. By firstly being the creator and then transforming into the beholder, making art is a very personal experience, for she becomes one with it.
Sometimes Nikki gets shocked and scared of what she makes, but she tries to be non-judgmental about her work and to accept it for what it is. To her, it is most beautiful when it devours you, when it is transformative. The feeling has to be right.
The most important thing is to experience, to feel (through) and to not be scared. Open yourself up to the experience!
“How do you look at it, how do you want to perceive my work? How do you see it?”