About The Can Factory
The Can Factorywhere
"We Can Art"
Studio Owner, better known as Atelier Knut Kargel shamelessly states,
"I don't know what the art world will think, but as for me, the art
world is missing the art. The ArtWorld has been transformed to a
type of Wall Street side show - a plastic world with no art. The last
real genius in the ArtWorld was Picasso and that was long, long ago.
It is time for a new performance." Thus the invention of The Can Factory.
A non-factory in that "we do not create mass production, and
we do all of our OWN work-but a factory none the less in that we work
like crazy".
At The Can Factory everybody is welcome, from the intellectual to the
worldly wise. There are artistic expressions with multi-leveled
contexts as well as art impressions of simplistic nature that speak to
the deepest chambers of the heart. Within the FACTORY one CAN find
art nourishment for the educated and highly esteemed art connoisseur
as well as for the teething, toddler, novice or not so educated
artiste. The Can Factory provides its artistic cuisine by showing the
best of art history through the use of contemporary expressions.
The mission: WE CAN ART is the Kargel montra. "Many current artists
are only in it for the hype of art as a money making market. They can
not art, they can money. Often I hear visitors to exhibitions saying
that their experience was boring. Our mission is to make art to
appeal to the heart, the soul and the spirit of the recipient. We
want art to be an inner event, and not an outer event."
The name The Can Factory was created from three entities: 1) a first
in global political history, 2) an innovative artist superstar and 3)
the dictionary. The name was inspired by the campaign slogan of the
world's first Black American President - "Yes We Can" from President
Barack Obama. Secondly the name is rooted in Andy Warhol's "Factory"
concept who produced art in collaboration with other artists,
musicians, dancers, photographers, film makers, etc... Third is the
double meaning based on the dictionary definition of can as "to be
able to" and can as "a container".
Another unique trademark of "The Factory" is that it is the brain
child of two artists. Knut Kargel and Christina Santana. "Neither of
us could do this work on our own...The Can Factory concept is the
product of four hands and two brains that produce one artist". Their
creative format is novel in that their medium is entirely centered
around plastic. "We transform plastic into clothes, masks, mystical
embodiments as well as recognizable creatures. We, ourselves are the
actors in the stories that our artwork tells. Depending on the
lighting and our human expressions, the same face sometimes embodies
God himself, and at other times depending on the lighting the same
human expression takes on the characteristic of all that is evil. Two
sides of the same coin, beauty and the beast, romance and drama, the
newness of life shrouded in the oldness of death.
Thus far, within its first year, The Can Factory has hosted several
small exhibits and fostered an Art-Walk Performance on the historic
dam wall of Lake Möhnesee. One of the unique facets of The Can Factory
is its Exhibition + Performance concept. "We dream of large
museums, with large prints of our work, sculptures hanging from the
roof, figures draped with our 'clothes', adorned with our masks,
performing-reciting poetry and prose-living images, living art. Our
creations are rooted in the genius of the old masters-Carravaggio's
signature lighting, Francis Bacon's haunting distortions, the
surrealism of Max Ernst and Dali, the mystical creatures of Hyronimus
Bosh, the satirical royalty of Goya and the color mastery of
Rembrandt. Kargel goes on to assure, "Not as copies but as new sights
with new techniques, working in plastic and digital photography, video
and computer technologies - a multi medium for a new art - for a new
performance - a new one of a kind experience with Art Becoming
Manufactured Into All That Art Can Be. Because ... We Can Art!
(Yolantha Harrison-Pace)