In his career as an animator, Steffen Kreft is used to working to other peoples deadlines and briefs. But in May 2013 he decided to give himself total free reign. The result was his 'One Postcard A Day' and almost handmade 400 postcards, currently on display at Aratoi.
So engrossing was the project that the Greytown-based artist made 383 cards before realizing he had exceeded his original target of 365 - one postcard for every day of the year. By that point it had become a routine. I kept going without thinking about the end date, he says.
Steffen worked on the project during a sojourn in his native Germany with New Zealand writer William Connor. The pair had received funding from the Goethe Institute to work on their animated series 'Lifeswap, which follows the lives of their alter egos Jorg and Duncan who decide to swap countries and cultures. Lifeswap is now into its sixth episode and has clocked up 86,000 views on its vimeo page.
Steffen sent his postcards, which incorporate drawing, collage, painting and photography, to friends and family around the world, and it’s the high resolution scans of these that are on display.
Hours were spent in second hand shops sourcing imagery and his table at home was spread with hundreds of cuttings. 'For one of the postcards, I had to go though 80 magazines to find a person in exactly the right scale to go with a picture I'd found of a pointing finger.'
He also started drawing people from life in cafes. 'Some of the most exciting images were those where I kept my eyes on the person while I was drawing.'
Seeing a book by NZ artist Beth Sometimes was the catalyst, and Steffen is compiling his own book that will be shown in a group exhibition in his hometown of Munster in March 2016.
Steffen says the project ticked three important boxes: 'It was something creative to do, a way of connecting during that time away to people who were important to me, and it became like a diary of that year.'
'I like the variety of styles and meanings. The postcards range from cute and naive drawings for my nephews through to a lot of intimate stuff. I didn't want to censor out anything. The images come from inside and tell a story of what I was going through during that exciting and difficult and wonderful year.'
One Postcard a Day: Steffen Kreft, until 13 Dec.
One Postcard a Day: Steffen Kreft, until 13 Dec.