Transcript
Speaker: You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host Ken Vellante. Editor and producer Peter Bauer. My name is Ken Vellante and you are listening to something rather than nothing and for this episode we have Kiki Kolampati and I'm very excited to talk to Kiki who is
Speaker: Just an amazing painter and student of art, and I've learned a lot from Kiki, and I think you will too. Kiki, welcome to something rather than nothing. Hello, thank you very much for having me. I'm very excited to talk to you. It's a great pleasure. We start from the beginning, Kiki, and just ask
Speaker: What you were like when you were younger? Did you have interest in art or drawing or just in general, what was your experience like? I was a regular average child. I was born in Germany, in Nuremberg, which was a really nice, beautiful town, medieval with castles. And I loved
Speaker: very much painting and drawing back then, like most of the children. So I did this during all my school time, even later. Drawing and painting is something that was accompanying me all my life, actually.
Speaker: So you've always had a creative bent. So how did that develop? Did it develop with your schooling as we go forward a little bit? I mean, is this something you continue to practice with your schooling? How did your art develop? Once you take the decision to take it seriously and
Speaker: and to learn things about it. It becomes completely different, you know. You start to act completely different and to take in consideration other things when you are seriously involved with this. So I went to the art school here in Athens and I learned very, very much
Speaker: here and somehow I liked all the movements, I saw the movements and the painters and the masters and somehow I took my own decisions then on how to go forward with this.
Speaker: Could you tell us about one of the things, Kiki, I've really enjoyed seeing and I know you've had some greater exposure with some presence in galleries. Can you talk about a recent exhibition that you had and kind of the type of pieces that you were displaying? In summer,
Speaker: I had an exhibition with two colleagues of mine, Giorgia Fabriz and Maris Pinaki in the island of Cyrus here in Greece. Curated was this by George Altupas and it was a really nice exhibition. The title was Entity battlefields. It had more or less to do on how we
Speaker: The three of us handle the human forms in our paintings and how we tear things apart and put them together again. It was very interesting. And I had another exhibition at the same time. It was in Berlin. The name was A Manner of Touch.
Speaker: This was also a great exhibition curated by the great curator, Yuriyan Bensop. And it was very nice how he managed, the title has to do with the new circumstances regarding touch in society, in conditions of COVID, and touch on the painting. And it was very interesting.
Speaker: Wow, that is such a fascinating conceptual framework for it. Kiki, I was wondering, I'm asking this question, just what was it like for you? I mean, so I'm an American over here, recently started painting and things like this. And you're talking about that fascinating exhibit.
Speaker: that you have in Berlin. For you as an artist, what's it mean to have something like that displayed in Berlin? What's it mean inside of you to have Berlin, an exhibit in Berlin? Yes. Berlin, of course, is a really important city for art. And that was very, very exciting for me. I was really happy about this.
Speaker: also really happy about our curator, Julian Benchop, who's an excellent writer. And also I was happy with all my colleagues there, the other artists, and also the space, it was a beautiful space where everything was exhibited. And I, I
Speaker: found really interesting the title and this conception, you know, so it was, you know, this combination touch, what it means now that we don't have it in society and what this term in general can can be, and also touch on the painting, the textures and everything. And since
Speaker: especially for me, it is very interesting because I have a lot of different textures on my paintings and that is very, very significant to me to have really a number of different textures and types and on how to put the color on the canvas and how to work with each area and
Speaker: this I liked very much with the conception. Yeah and I'm definitely going to look more into that. I mean I just think a lot of times on the show I've asked about you know the impact of COVID on art and roles like that but I think even the question stepping back a little bit on
Speaker: touch, you know, just like within a pandemic, you know, human to human, but also as it's represented in painting. For me, I love, you know, I just think that's such a fantastic idea, and I'm going to delve further into it. Kiki, the listeners want to know that you and I have chatted in the past, and one of the things I enjoy about you is
Speaker: your ideas about art and how you make art in art history. Big question for the show, of course, is what is art? And I know you have an answer. I have one. I think art is mostly something where
Speaker: people, a term where people are involved in, where humanity is involved with this. I mean, something that stands beautifully there, for example, a landscape or a tree or flowers, that is really beautiful. And that's maybe the beginning for us to make art, seeing this beauty around us in nature, for example.
Speaker: but nature itself isn't art. It's only art when we are involved in this. For example, the flower isn't art. My picture of the flower can be art. That's one answer. Now, the other answer is that what can we call art?
Speaker: Can we call art something that we use in our daily life? Can a chair be art or not because we use it? So that is a matter that the Bauhaus movement answered very well since they involved art in creating
Speaker: daily objects like chairs, like furniture, like anything. And the other thing is that we can call art whatever we want. And the biggest example is Marcel Duchamp, what he did with his piece there, signed with the name Moot,
Speaker: We can call art anything we want. We can take something and put it there and say it's art, and then it will be art. If we have also a statement for this, so to explain why it is art. But the truth is that we can name art whatever we want. That's somehow a nice thing because it has to do with the freedom in art.
Speaker: has a big, big amount of freedom, you know, is the biggest expression of freedom. So being able to name out whatever we want and put some statements on it, on why, it may be misused, but also it's the beauty of freedom of the whole thing.
Speaker: I really appreciate your answer and I wanted to follow up Kiki about kind of in a historical moment the role of art and let me just explain one thing. So I was just recently I read a lot of art magazines and I enjoy seeing what's going on in the art scene and quite simply just looking at visuals of what people are creating. It's a great joy.
Speaker: One of the things I was reading is about, you know, how art appears at different times. And where I live, the United States, this is at present, the cultural conditions right now is that there is no subtlety.
Speaker: in this country whatsoever. There's nothing, nothing, nothing that's subtle. Everything is blunt, and it just appears. So and lack in subtlety, I appreciate subtle art. And so the conditions here have rapidly changed as far as how art appears. My question for you is really not about that is it but is, in general,
Speaker: What is the role of art right now, say in a pandemic or whatever conditions that it arises in? What do you see as art's role right now in 2021? Art has actually no role. Art is there to do what it already does. It documents
Speaker: humanity anywhere. So that's the most significant part of art, that it's documenting what is happening anywhere, regarding not that much the political part of history, moreover, the human psychology. That's the most significant.
Speaker: significant part of art. It's there like a diary of humanity, you know. You can see anything in art. You can see the techniques, how everything evolves. You can see the history, the political history. You can see
Speaker: The human kind, the behavior, you can see things like that. Now, everything worldwide is messed up a little bit. There is kind of everything and nothing. So, same thing happens with art, you know. It's maybe a big mess, a big disaster. Things appear and disappear and new art is coming up.
Speaker: and puts other things in question. So there is this thing going on worldwide, and it's reflected in art, and that's a good thing. I mean, it wouldn't be normal if in a world like this, there would be perfect, beautiful art. I mean, art has to reflect
Speaker: what is going on in the world and the closer it is to reflect the truth, the more beautiful it is and the more perfect it is.
Speaker: That's my opinion. Yeah. One of the things I've asked you before, and I know it's always kind of a weird question to ask of artists. And the reason why I'm going to ask this question is because, you know, your knowledge of art and when I'm talking to a significant artist like yourself,
Speaker: seeing what influences them, what type of ideas or visual representations they connect to. But in learning more about you, I wanted to ask you about artists that have influenced you. Artists, whether they're ideas or they're actual technique or colors or whatever, what type of artists have influenced how you approach your own creativity?
Speaker: The thing is that I admire art from the beginning. I mean, I admire cave paintings, I admire each movement. There have been so significant things in art, so many things happened. I couldn't name one or two or three artists
Speaker: who are more or less responsible for what I do. I mean, I love Munch, can't get enough of him. Chittai, Baikon, de Kooning, Brunella, de Klaff, Dibenkorn, Franz Klein, Bjar, Waloton. I could name this 200, Wayne Thieboh, Motherwell, David Park, Liechtenstein, Agnes Peloton,
Speaker: I don't know, in every movement there are significant masters who I admire. So I don't know, me myself, I don't know exactly to answer you this, but the thing is that I really appreciate a lot of them, each one for other reasons.
Speaker: And my art, in my art, the most significant thing is my own truth and honesty. I mean, I want my paintings to are, first of all, personal. And I want it to reflect
Speaker: the truth, you know, I mean, there are things on my paintings, maybe for the eye of some people, they don't fit that much together, maybe some shapes, maybe some colors, whatever. But that's not priority for me. Perfection is not priority for me. For me, priority is to
Speaker: to be honest in my art. And that was the decision I made for myself after seeing and watching and studying all these artists, that what I learned, honesty is the most beautiful thing in art. So... Yeah, there's maybe a simplicity, right? We have some...
Speaker: deep and profound questions, but sometimes there's a greater simplicity to it, right? Yes, that's true. We make things complicated just in order to never find an answer, probably. You're catching on to my game here. So, hey, one question when you were talking about
Speaker: you know, your life and growing up as a childhood in Germany and you live in Greece now. Has your just sheer physical location of how, of where you create art, have you seen impacts of that over time? This is a big story, you know, it's completely different living there.
Speaker: in Germany than living here in Greece. Because what somebody paints, what I paint, has to do with my environment. And the colors and the light are completely different there. And the colors are here in Greece completely different. So since I want to put this reality in my canvas,
Speaker: The colors adjust to this. I think if I would live in Germany, it would be completely different. Okay, of course, we have now the smartphones and the computers and we travel anywhere just through our monitors, the truth is, and we can see so many things and experience the things through our monitors and
Speaker: learn new things, but to me it's very important the truth, how the real environment around somebody is. So yes, it's something important where somebody lives and what is to see around us.
Speaker: Another bigger question that I've asked guests it is kind of like a foundational question is Do you ever ask yourself? Why you create so kicky you're there in front of a blank canvas and you're gonna you're gonna try something you ever step back and say What am I what am I trying to do with with with this with this piece? What? Why am I creating? What am I trying here?
Speaker: I do it because it's nice to do this. I mean, I wouldn't paint, I wouldn't make paintings if I wouldn't enjoy it. That's a very simple question, but I think it's true. I am hearing a lot of people saying that they are trying to communicate with other people through art.
Speaker: That is true. The result is that from the painting, through the paintings, you can communicate in another way with people. But it's not my initial thought. The thing is that I want to do this. I mean something, someone just spontaneously
Speaker: has this need to express things on canvas. But even if nobody would see it, I would do this. I would paint. Even if I would be alone anywhere, I would paint. So I'm doing this because it's a beautiful creating part and I learn very, very much from painting. It teaches me, you know.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, and I appreciate that. So it's it's really what it does for you. And of course, it can communicate out towards the world, but it does a lot for you. Oh, I forgot to say something. Excuse me for for interrupting you. This is your interview. I wanted to say it and then because I talk so much, I forgot it myself, but
Speaker: when you asked me about the pandemic and the role of art, etc. Art is there always and will be there always. As long as humanity exists, there will be art. And this pandemic is really nothing when we compare it to other conditions in the past, you know. I was in Berlin in the museum.
Speaker: watching this painting, it was from Felix Nussbaum. Felix Nussbaum is a painter who was imprisoned by the Nazis. Somehow he managed to get his colors and paint this painting. He knew that he would die
Speaker: almost his whole family already have been murdered by the Nazis. And he did paint. I mean, art is being done in the most worst conditions. It has, you know, there were conditions really incredibly bad.
Speaker: But art didn't stop, never. And it will never stop. So this pandemic is nothing when we compare it with other situations back there. I know what you mean, and I want to just pause for a second for myself and point to
Speaker: a particular piece of where art is produced, it's always deeply and profoundly impacted me. When you were talking about the conditions of the painter in the concentration camps, I was thinking of out in the Czech Republic at the time, it was Czechoslovakia under the occupation of the Nazis and the Theresienstadt was the camp
Speaker: that had better conditions because it was displayed to the Red Cross International. And there were a lot of kids there. It was a concentration camp, but like the best concentration camp is gets weird to talk about, right? Yes, yes. But it was the one that would be shown. And, you know, I have a collection of the children artists from Thoressenstad.
Speaker: And you can't not look at these, like you can't look at these paintings just as paintings in and of themselves. You're viewing these paintings in the sense of humans captured, humans facing death, humans scared, humans trying to capture beauty in absolute darkness. And it's that context in the one you you had referred to. Right. That's just the colors are that much brighter.
Speaker: Because you know, because you know. It's incredible. In the work you're referring to, Kiki, is that what you know, that piece? Yes, that's that's what I'm telling you. And but despite that, I have to tell you that the painting isn't only great because of this context. It is a great painting, you know, you have to do this. It is a beautiful painting.
Speaker: I mean, I will send it to you later, the link. And I'm saying this because it's not correct, in my opinion, to take advantage of the circumstances just to promote the art somebody makes. I mean, okay, I made this. This is not so nice.
Speaker: But the context was very interesting. The context was the pandemic. No, it's not enough. I mean, it has to be something different. There is this misuse, I guess. They are using sometimes terms in order to give a great value to things. I mean, it's not necessary. As I said,
Speaker: artists reflecting what we are. So yeah, and I think when you when you mentioned that you're referring to a lot of the psychology that comes up, you know, the mind and things like that. And I know when I started this podcast, which is ostensibly about art and ostensibly about philosophy,
Speaker: that when we're talking about these areas, we're always talking about the human mind and we're talking about psychology and it's become quite enjoyable to be able to get into that. Kiki, given your skills as an artist and your intelligence, I'm going to now ask you why there is something rather than nothing. Can you tell me what is this nothing? What is nothing? I mean,
Speaker: I knew you were gonna do this. I knew you were gonna do this to me, right? What is nothing? What is nothing? I'm gonna answer it for me and then I'm telling you, you have to answer this question before, you know, this goes back to you.
Speaker: The question of what the nothing is and when I've answered this is in the context of Buddhism and I want to try to provide a little bit more clarity. Nothingness is not necessarily the void or I'm going to say it more clearly. Nothingness is not is not a void. The nothingness in the terms of
Speaker: uh, something or nothing in the, in an Eastern tradition is that the viewer, the, the, the phenomena of the viewer, me, the subject, I'm just kind of a collection of thoughts, ideas, experience, trauma, thinking, collected experiences, et cetera. It's a bundle, a bundle, a bundle of stuff. So there's, there's things there.
Speaker: There's things there, but it's not a unified, coherent ego. And the object over there is not something that exists unto itself and has its own standing. So I merely wish to say that the nothingness is not a void, that things
Speaker: are still there. It's a reference to ultimately not having inherent existence of themselves. But as I stumbled along with that, this question is for my guests to stumble over. So it's up to you, Icky, now. So, you know, I think it's a matter of perspective. It's just a matter of perspective, probably. And
Speaker: For me, I mean, I answer it in a completely different way, of course. I understand absolutely what you say. And from your point of view, it's correct. I understand it. It has a point. I answer this question with another psychology. I say,
Speaker: Regarding to nothing as nothing, the absence of everything, we can't experience this, we don't know what it is, how it looks like or how it feels, because we are made of so many things, we are made of something, you know,
Speaker: everything we are and everything we think about and our whole ideas are based on everything, on something, you know. So Epicurus said, ancient Greek philosopher, that nothing, the term of nothing is a human construct and since it is a human
Speaker: since it is a human construct, the question is already neutralized, you know, because it's a construct. So we don't have the experience of nothing. And we live in this world where our experiences are. And so I think
Speaker: Everything is something. If nothing exists somewhere, I really don't know it. And it's something that doesn't interest me for now. I did. Because, yes, I absorb so many things, or I have to absorb so many things in this life.
Speaker: We don't even have the time for this. I mean, we don't live enough to get enough of all this. So for me, everything is something. I think you give in like.
Speaker: like a complete theoretical and also a very practical answer yes very very practical like yes i want to i want to hang around with the some things look at the some things and uh not not necessarily wander off into the nothings or what those things are yes you know um
Speaker: It's a matter of what helps you more in this life. I mean, what you like more is a thought and you can keep this in mind. And in any case, you know, things change and we ourselves, we change and the way we think is changing through the experiences and everything. So maybe the day after tomorrow, I'll say the same thing like you and you say what I say.
Speaker: And then hide again. It matters when you ask the question, right? It really does. There's such that subjective nature to it. I really see that. Kiki, I want the listeners to be able to connect with your artwork, where to find it, where to find you. Can you tell the listeners where to encounter your art and the things that you do as an artist?
Speaker: First of all, the best place where you can find me in the easiest is Instagram for now. There is, of course, also my site, my internet site, which is kiki .colimpari, weak site. And if you Google this, you will find me.
Speaker: Yeah, that's where I am for now. Instagram would be the most easy way, I guess. It's Kiki, K -I -K -I, underscore, Colin Bari. You will find me. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. And I definitely recommend everybody do that. I always like to, you know, offer to guests to, you know, how to connect
Speaker: So I can see, you know, I always think it's a it's a particular challenge. And I appreciate you as as a painter, you know, trying to talk about, you know, the art you create and about art. And, you know, I have different type of guests. And of course, whatever the medium is of the art that they do, sometimes it's more readily transferable. Right. And yes, podcasts. But I really enjoy your thoughts about art. And again,
Speaker: as you already know, enjoy your beautiful paintings and your thoughts. I want to thank you, Kiki, for your time and for joining the podcast. It's been a great pleasure.
Speaker: And thank you very much and congrats for your podcasts. I'm hearing the interviews. It's so beautiful to hear the whole interviews from the personalities you invite. And I also recommend to anybody to listen to it and to follow it.
Speaker: so thank you oh my gosh thank you Kiki that's that's that's so kind of you yes indeed um in addition to Kiki there are 69 70 other artists to listen to the podcast over the last couple years and uh thank you thank you so much Kiki okay thank you bye bye
Speaker: This is something rather than nothing.
