Andrea Loefke's Interactive Art

Brooklyn-Based German Artist Discusses Her Work and Practice

May 15, 2008

Andrea Loefke is an up-and-coming New York artist. Here, she explains the fascinating process behind her art and some of the key works that she has developed thus far.

German born artist Andrea Loefke lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, constructing conglomerates of material and form, working from innumerable materials, both decorative and everyday. These supplies overflow from the categorized shelves and bins of her studio. In fabricating these often vivid multiform assemblages, Loefke employs a myriad of techniques expressing ambiguous thoughts and sensations. These fairy-like worlds are complex structures incorporating multiple objects, colours and textures, resulting in what could be described as playful and mysterious landscapes, enticing the viewer into visual narrative journeys.

Part Five

PB: I see that the initial idea of the tree house has given way to your latest work 'inandoutthroughandabout - and don't forget to put your feed in the blue bucket', for the Islip Art Museum, New York - this seems to represent the very idea of viewer participation that you stated an interest in when last we spoke. This new work appears to employ a more direct method of integrating the viewer into the work. The journey goes beyond that of the eye traversing a visual narrative and adds the aspect of the physical journey into the piece. You lead the viewer quite literally, through demarcated corridors of material to the very centre of the work itself. They physically place themselves at the end of the narrative – each viewer becomes the missing physical component of the installation – what is the importance to you of evolving your work into a participatory piece by integrating the viewer?

AL: I feel if I invite the viewer to become part of the work and not only intellectually and emotionally but in an actual physical way, he or she will most likely have an even more vivid, memorable, and rich experience. The dipping into a world of wonder and discovery becomes real, becomes true experience, true sensation. The art affects the viewer as a human being in this world. Though, the most wonderful aspect of it all is, that there is a chance for the viewer to keep the piece moving and evolving. With every personality entering the piece, there is a possibility for a new ending. The artwork depends on the person and reinvents itself every time. The artist provides the platform – a platform 'affluent of initiation', where the participant ties all the elements together.

PB: Sculpture places the viewer outside of the objects 'universe' in an objective position. Installation places the viewer as participant in that 'universe' in a subjective position. Your piece takes this stance even further with the addition of a temporal process to your installation – that of the process of the journey, physical, internal and marked by time and process?

AL: Yes I agree, and the piece is incomplete without a temporary participant. The moment one enters, the work becomes. The moment one exits, the work ceases. The moment the work is quiet; it awaits the next inhabitant and exists as a framework, full of potential. In 'inandoutthroughandabout’, and this is in fact new to my work, the viewer becomes a performer and takes the narrative to another level. He or she is in the center of the play and at its end. A time component is added. The work is ephemeral.

The copyright of the article Andrea Loefke's Interactive Art in Sculpture is owned by Paul Black. Permission to republish Andrea Loefke's Interactive Art in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.