Contemporary artist Sascha Nordmeyer, creator of the HyperLip now plays with light and space to create subtle experiences.
Characteristics such as harmony, simplicity, accuracy and abstraction are also of great importance to me. Further, my work is building a bridge between the past and the present, namely handicraft and technology.
Artist portrait. Contemporary artist Sascha Nordmeyer.
Take us to the beginning of your story. How did your tryst with art begin?
As long as I can remember I always drew a lot. When I was about nine years old I wished I could own a Swatch watch. Meanwhile, I imagined dozens of bright coloured imaginary watches. Just for fun my parents sent the drawings to the brand’s design studio in Switzerland. How great it was when I got a letter of appreciation and a blue coloured transparent Swatch! This is how my passion for art and design started I guess.
Finally I studied product design and became an in-house designer at the French luxury brand S.T. Dupont where I designed James Bond’s cuff links worn in Casino Royale by Daniel Craig. When I set up my own design studio I had some success with my communication prosthesis, also known as HyperLip, a prosthetic smile that was exhibited in MoMA, New York, in 2011.
Since I was in love with paper and really getting into light, space and motion I finally became a full-time artist about five years ago.
Contemporary artist Sascha Nordmeyer.
What is the primary role of an artist? How do you describe yourself in the context of challenging people’s perspectives via your work and art?
I believe an artist is a researcher. As a result, his work should provide people with a singular and innovative outlook on nature, science, history, and the human condition. It should make tangible the invisible, stimulate the senses and release emotions.
My ongoing work has a strong focus on immersion and contemplation. I try to celebrate these fundamental issues. My large-scale installations composed of hundreds of thousands of paper reflectors invite people to pause for a moment in our fast-paced world and appreciate the subtle and continual play of light and shade.
Characteristics such as harmony, simplicity, accuracy and abstraction are also of great importance to me. Further, my work is building a bridge between the past and the present, namely handicraft and technology.
I love to conceive installations for specific places in order to enable a new experience, as I did inside a temple at Nuit Blanche Kyoto last year.
Contemporary artist Sascha Nordmeyer.
How do you deal with the conceptual difficulty and uncertainty of creating work?
Uncertainty is uncomfortable on the one hand. On the other hand, it has a stimulating effect and strengths creativity.
Let’s talk about the evolution of your practice over the years. Tell us about your commitment to your current medium.
I think my practice is evolving continually, with one creative experience leading to the next one. In my younger days I enjoyed making provocative projects, as evident in the HyperLip.
When I became more and more enthusiastic about motion and paper, I ended up with monumental paper mobiles. Today I am fascinated by light and space, and my language has become minimal and pure. For instance, the monolith from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was the main inspiration for a recent installation.
Contemporary artist Sascha Nordmeyer.
Let’s talk about your career. What were your biggest lessons and hurdles along the way?
Years ago I was fired. That day I knew that I would run my own studio as an artist.
What is your experience of the power of formative collaborations? Which residency, curator or gallery helped you along on your artistic journey?
I really started my career with Paris-based art dealer Christophe Gratadou. He presented my first gallery solo show in 2016 and has guided me since then. He also helped me realise to what degree art can release emotions. Now, I also collaborate with Claudine Slotine, my second Paris-based dealer. She pushed me to the next level by showing my work for the second time at Art Paris which is held at the Grand Palais.
Contemporary artist Sascha Nordmeyer.
What are you looking for when you look at other artists’ work? Which shows, performances and experiences have shaped your own creative process? Who are your maestros? Whose journey would you want to read about?
I have always been fascinated by artists with a compulsive body of work, such as Giorgio Morandi and his still life paintings, which are full of bottles and vases. When I was a student some retrospectives have been defining like Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse and Jean Tinguely. Further Constantin Brancusi is one of my maestros, in particular the L’oiseaudansl’espace series. I also like James Turrell, Richard Serra and Ernesto Neto. Of course, I adore ZERO art group artists such as Yves Klein, Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker, Enrico Castellani and Agostino Bonalumi for their interest in light and space.
Contemporary artist Sascha Nordmeyer.
How do you balance art and life?
Art and life are intimately fused, one feeds the other.
What was your first sale? Do you handle the commercials yourself or is it outsourced to a gallery or an agent?
Ten years ago Madeleine Millot-Durrenberger, a well known French photography collector, acquired three of my works. Today, I am represented by three different galleries: Galerie Slotine and Galerie Christophe Gratadou from Paris and Galerie Kellermann from Düsseldorf, Germany.
Contemporary artist Sascha Nordmeyer.
What are you working on now? What’s coming next season?
Galerie Slotine will host my upcoming solo show at Art Paris from April 2 to April 5, 2020. I am also working on a large outdoor sculpture for a collector. I will show with Galerie Kellermann very soon again.
For enquiries contact : mail@saschanordmeyer.com
Before you go – you might like to browse our Artist Interviews. Interviews of artists and outliers on how to be an artist. Contemporary artists on the source of their creative inspiration.