Martin Klimas was born in 1971 in Lake of Konstanz, Germany. He received his degree in Visual Communications from Fachhochschule Dusseldorf and has had many exhibitions in Germany and abroad. He is represented by Foley Gallery in New York and Bransch for commercial assignments.

FROM YOUR DESKS: How do you work?

MARTIN KLIMAS: Everyday. From 9 to  7.

FYD: What is your favorite sentimental object at your workspace and why?

MK: There isn’t one, sorry.

FYD: What is your favorite or most required work tool?

MK: The Hasselblad.

FYD: Talk a bit about your current paint project. How did you conceive the idea and put it into motion? 

MK: So many artists have worked with music, but I never saw work which answered my main question: “What does Music look like itself?” I didn’t want to stop at the associative depiction of sound and so I have built a machine that converts sound waves into pictures.

FYD: Have the technicalities worked themselves out and can we try this at home?

MK: Yes, try it at home. It’s not that difficult. Take a speaker and put Color Or Else on it!

FYD: You cite Hans Jenny, the father of Cymatics as inspiration. What does his work mean to you?

MK: In 2008, I saw the Kymatik (translated Cymatics) research of Hans Jenny for the first time. He worked in the 1970’s on the study of Wave Phenomena. He was interested to find primary forms which are forming the shape of everything on earth: “The more one studies these things, the more one realizes that sound is the creative principle. It must be regarded as primordial. No single phenomenal category can be claimed as the aboriginal principle. We cannot say, in the beginning was number, or in the beginning was symmetry, etc. These are categorical properties which are implicit in what brings forth and what is brought forth. By using them in description we approach the heart of the matter. They are not themselves the creative power. This power is inherent in tone, in sound.”

All music generates interesting forms.

FYD: Does Jackson Pollock’s work influence you at all?

MK: Pollock has influenced me especially in his relation to jazz music.

FYD: What kind of technical equipment are using?  Certainly you’ve blown a few speakers.

MK: Yes, that’s right and some amplifiers too. I use an ordinary loudspeaker with a funnel-shaped membrane covered with foil, then I put the colours onto the canvas and withdraw from the set-up. Putting the music on maximum volume I leave the creation of the picture to the sound itself. The Hasselblad is automatically released by a Soundtrigger. In general, I use normal photographic equipment and common music stuff.

I like the simplicity of the act of letting something fall.

FYD: What genre of music provides the most interesting or artistic paint splatters?  And, how did you decide on the music and artists themselves?

MK: All music generates interesting forms. I don’t want to be limited to certain styles or periods. I typically select something dynamic and percussive. I’ve used very different pieces such as “Transitor“ by Kraftwerk as well as Carl Orff´s “Carmina Burana.“ It was important to me that the pieces have a relation to art like (Andy) Warhol or Velvet Underground influenced other composers and performers like Ornette Coleman’s “Free Jazz, A Collective Improvisation.“

FYD:  In your falling silk scarves photographs of the 50’s thru the 90’s; do you see derivation in fashion span over those forty years?

MK: Yes, very much. Fashion designers always assimilated ideas and concepts from their temporary culture. It’s interesting to uncover these and transport it back to the art. I think it’s an intelligent method of quotation.

FYD: What do you like most about the art of shattering? 

MK: I like the simplicity of the act of letting something fall. Especially in case of a Porcelain Figurine, because it’s her inescapable destiny. The pictures I like show several states of time: The Past. What the figurine was. The present. The sum of splattering and flying pieces. The future. The spectator knows from his own memory of broken porcelain or glass things.

FYD: What would you like to break next?

MK: I don’t really know.

FYD: Your summer motto…

MK: In the words of one of my role models, the scientist Harold E. Edgerton, a pioneer of high-speed photography: “Work like hell, tell everyone everything you know, close a deal with a handshake, and have fun.“