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Since 2016, German artist Michael Kuehn (aka “I AM MICA”) has resided in Beijing/China, where he has captured everyday life, culture and landscapes in and around the country while working on his art projects.
Interview: Michael Kuehn
Born 1972 in Thuringia (Germany), digital artist Michael Kuehn (aka “I AM MICA”) founded one of Eastern Germanys first design agencies at the age of 19. By 26 he already exhibited personal artworks in his hometown and then moved to Berlin, where he launched and curated “Sin-Berlin” - an exhibition which featured more than 50 artists including his own work.
After that he moved to New York as a creative retoucher, worked with well-known photo artists such as Phil Toledano and Stephen Wilkes. Moving back to Germany he started to shoot images himself, exclusively using large scale cameras while further pursuing creative image retouch working exclusively for Mercedes-Benz via one of Germanys most creative agency “Jung von Matt.”
Since 2016, Mica has resided in Beijing/China, where he has captured everyday life, culture and landscapes in and around the country while working on his art projects. In 2020 MICA was the first foreign artist to receive the locally coveted “Big Artist Award” for contemporary art in China. In 2021 MICA participated the "Chengdu Biennale Special Invitation Exhibitions - Still On" in the Hemei Art Museum Chengdu. On June 2022, he kindly answered our questions.
How did you become a photographer?
I don't see myself as a photographer, rather as a digital artist. I use images that I have photographed the same like painters use their brushes. I've been working with the medium of photography for over 25 years, and I've spent much more time in front of the computer editing and recreating images than I spend on the photo shoots. That is the main difference.
Your series “8FACES” astonishingly resonates with paintings portraits, such as those by Pablo Picasso or Francis Bacon. Is there any deliberate reference to pictorial tradition through this series?
Of course, both and many more artists have influenced me and encouraged me direct my expression in this direction. Deliberately? No, the way I work, the material I photograph often determines how the final image will look like. Sometimes I realize it during the photo shoot, but often only in front of the computer when I see photographs. The more details I see and apprehend of an image, the easier and faster my head creates a new vision of it.
What inspired you to do this unique project?
In fact, I dreamed of this project. The images evolved in my inner eye. Additionally, there was a picture of Chuck Close that I couldn't get out of my head (MARK). It was a portrait of a very normal fellow. None of it was embellished. I thought that we had lost this point of view and that my vision of the project should be transported to the present day - as a composition. I don't presume to compare myself to Chuck Close, but I feel a similarity to view and express things.
Why do you think this project is important?
In the midst of the pandemic, I realized that what we crave most is honesty, honest feelings and honest answers, even though our own public image suggests quite the opposite. We use filters on our smartphones in a targeted manner in order to appear better, and we only show our sunny side on social media.
According to a scientific study published by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was found that in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic alone, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25%. This theme can also be found in my pictures. On the other hand, the aim of my project is to show the totality of feelings and how they are mixed up within each individual person.
What were the questions your models reacted most strongly about?
There were always 12 questions about feelings, from which I filtered out the 8 most intense. There were people who burst into tears when asked about happiness, as there was ironic laughter when asked about depression. In my pictures you can try to understand where the tears and the laughing eyes come from, but it will be difficult. Therefore, the question is impossible to answer.
What do you hope, the impact of these images will have to your audience?
I hope that people are being aware of their genuineness and are able to show it. That they are proud of the range of feelings they have and honestly express them to the outside world. There should be acceptance that people cry, that they are sometimes in a bad mood, but can also be full of joy. That we can show what is disgusting to us, as well that we can show what we really like, without being judged for it. If this would be common behaviour, feelings of any kind would be accepted, wanted and loved.
You have been living in Beijing since 2016. To what extend your life China has impacted on your approach?
Enormous. I don't even know where to start there. When I arrived here, the experience was like landing on another planet. People look different, the advertising has signs that you don't know and you don't understand a word. After 6 years that hasn't completely changed, but of course I got much more used to it. These inexhaustible impressions intake reacted in a forceful creativity output, me, creating new images from what I see, mixed with my visions and emotions. All the tales and history I did not knew, places, customs... like I said, I don't know where to start and where to stop.
What are your next projects?
I always work on several projects at the same time. When I get stuck in the process of one, I work on another. This creates something like a cross-creativity that inspires me on multiple layers. Certainly, it always depends on what kind of input I get. I see the world differently, as probably every artist does, and I look forward to every journey that brings me to new variations in the presentation of my projects. Personally, I think my next project is to travel more again, to inhale even more impressions of humanity and nature.
More information:
www.instagram.com/mica.i.am
