Amrei Hofstätter

Amrei Hofstätter is a freelance illustrator and artist currently living in Berlin. She loves to create pictures with her computer. Looking closely at her work, you can find so many details in her pieces, this is insane. Amrei already had severals collaboration with different fashion label and the result is breath taking.

KALTBLUT: Why did you opt for Digital Art? What got you interested in it?

Amrei: I studied Graphic Design and so working on the computer was something I gradually got into. It quickly became clear to me that digital illustration was the field I was most interested in. Even though I was drawing a lot as a child, I would consider my drawing skills by hand as pretty basic. I might improve if I applied more time and effort to it, but admittedly I am just lacking in passion. I find technology quite sensual and working on the computer is an experience that gives me pleasure. I just feel more liberated and less confined, which might be a paradox to some due to the image of my body sitting in front of a glowing box all day and night, but when it comes to the works itself I just feel more free in my possibilities. I guess the ‘undo’ option also has a certain importance there.

KALTBLUT: How do you think Digital Art is different to other forms of art?

Amrei: Well most of all the obvious connection of the human body/mind and technology, something we have completely integrated into our daily life but that still remains to be quite ‘other’ to us. This ‘otherness’ will only increase with the gradual shift towards AI, obviously. But then, apart of that, I prefer to not categorize the different disciplines of art so much, because in the end that always makes you judge or classify, and I find that a bit contra productive when it’s done outside of an academical context. Digital art is no less or more valid than the classical approach, what matters is the content.

KALTBLUT: We love your Gifs, It looks like they’ve from a video games. Are you gonna do more of it?

Amrei: I definitely wish to do more of them. Unfortunately there are always so many things I want to do ‘more of’ that it can be a bit overwhelming and I lose focus.

KALTBLUT: You images looks very futuristic. What inspire you the most ?

Amrei: So many things. Childhood memories/future illusions, comic books, japanese animation & manga, science fiction, technology, love & loveloss, fashion, literature, cinema, music, architecture, macro- and micro-nature, broken structures, traumata, the invasion of established systems, paradoxes, the human condition, the great burning secret.

KALTBLUT: Looking trough your work, it looks like you never have just one image, it’s always a series of different elements that comes together. How is your creative/working process when you start a new project?

Amrei: It always starts with a question about something I feel like I need to explore. Maybe also an article I read or an expression I heard. Like ‘The core of a neutron star’, or ‘Gravitational Collapse’, those words excite me. I research and investigate to understand their context and then I displace them into a different context and see what happens. Then I start with a small tiny element at the center of the image. And from there is literally grows and sprawls into all directions. I never have a fixed sketch that i fill in. Sometimes I wish I did, because there would be a clear separation between the creative effort and a mere technical, functional effort. In my case I feel like I am constantly struggling from beginning to end. But I guess the good side about is that this also gives me more freedom to experiment and explore throughout the process.

KALTBLUT: You had several collaborations with fashion labels. How did this happened?

Amrei: I was very lucky in all cases because the labels contacted me. Some occasions they used my images as they were, in other cases I created patterns specifically for them. I would definitely love to collaborate more with fashion labels in the future. I see that there are still a lot of possibilities to explore, especially in relation to 3D printing and more 3dimensional, creatively challenging works. I think my dream project would be a sort of multimedia showcase, with me and a fashion/costume designer and sound designer and stage/visual designer and dancer/performer working together. I really hope that there could be a possibility for something like this one day. Maybe it should be me initiating it, who knows. I just need to lose my fear of approaching people.

KALTBLUT: Actually the clothes looks incredible! How it is to see your work print on clothes and wear by people?

Amrei: It’s exhilarating. I am the possibly the least entitled person out there so it’s not an ego thing for me, it’s just pure happiness about my work being out there and being appreciated by someone, literally carried outside to enrich the world. Of course it’s also very sensual to see it on the human body, and I love it when men and women and everyone in between enjoys wearing my stuff.