“It begged the question: What kind of changes are coming? So, you had to think up something new, but it took me about 15 years before I had the feeling, ok, I’m back on solid ground again.”
Jeanett Kipka was born in East Berlin in 1958. She trained as a childcare worker and attended drawing circles to teach herself art. She now works as a communication and creativity trainer and childcare worker. In 1990 she painted the abstract picture “Vogelflug” (Flight of birds) on the Berlin Wall.
Jeanett Kipka in the interview
“Vogelflug” (Flight of birds) by Jeanett Kipka is made up of different-shaped areas of colour, one resembling a bird. The artist has said that the shapes were originally part of a whole but changed and became detached. Here, they convey the issues unity, duplication, and change in abstract forms. “Vogelflug” was Kipka’s first large-format painting in the city and sparked her interest in public art in urban spaces.
Alongside her profession as a childcare worker, Kipka attended drawing circles to teach herself visual art without enrolling in art school. She was inspired to paint by her interest in everything that flows and is creative. She worked for a long period as a freelance artist and has had many exhibitions.
“Sudden changes like that happen again and again. That was one of them, one of many. The lesson I take from it is, perhaps, don’t try and make people think stability exists.”