Published 03 May 2021 in Press
SPIEGEL
"I've hijacked millions of smartphones as a GIF"
By Verena Töpper
SPIEGEL Magazine - Careers
Published 01 May 2021
Andy Kassier knows only one good motive as an artist: himself. In his role as a narcissist, he adorns magazine covers and clears Tinder. Who is the man? A phone call in South Africa.
A man rides a white horse in skin-tight white jeans and a bare torso, his bare feet dangling only a few centimeters above the white sand. Behind him the sea shimmers in shades of blue and turquoise. Next to it just a word "I".
"Admittedly, this cover could be our most provocative so far," writes the "Harvard Business Manager", which is published by SPIEGEL-Verlag. “But the world's largest study of narcissism was screaming for a visual hit.” Who is the man who embodies a narcissist so perfectly? His name is Andy Kassier and he works as a concept artist. We reached him in South Africa. He answers the video call in a white shirt and shiny gold teardrop glasses, a curl falls over his forehead.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Kassier, are we going to talk to the fictional character or the conceptual artist?
Andy Kassier: Nobody knows exactly where the line is. That's the exciting thing.
SPIEGEL: Did you get dressed up especially for the interview, or is that your private look too?
Kassier: In principle, I only wear white shirts, that's just practical. The glasses are from Etienne Aigner, I bought them second-hand for 20 euros and then had them re-gilded. I like such old racks. And the hair is just like that. I have to go to the hairdresser again.
Photo: Andy Kassier
Andy Kassier (born 1989) lives and works full-time as a concept artist in Berlin. His work includes installations, performances, photography, videos, sculptures and painting. He completed his studies in media arts in 2018 with distinction at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. In 2013 he created his alter ego Andy Kassier, who ironically breaks the narrative of wealth and happiness in late capitalist society. He is continuously developing the long-term performance on Instagram and in international solo and group exhibitions.
SPIEGEL: As an artist, you only seem to know one really good motive: yourself. When did you fall in love with yourself?
Kassier: At the beginning of my art studies. Even then, I was fascinated by Cindy Sherman. I wanted to shoot a large series of male roles, but none of my pictures were usable. Only one off-shot was successful, on which I stood in front of a white wall. So my series began with the figure of the businessman. In 2013 I uploaded the first pictures to Instagram. Since then, the narrative has changed.
SPIEGEL: To what extent?
Kassier: Back then, the businessman was primarily interested in money, displaying wealth and belonging to the "rich kids of instagram". Then he got burned out. There is a picture in which he goes into the sea in the evening, in the dark. Half a year later he comes out again. And since then he has been a fan of yoga, meditation and spirituality.
SPIEGEL: And a fan of motivational speech sleeves. A photo shows him under a waterfall, underneath it says: "Be flexible like water, and falling will not hurt", be as flexible as water, then falling won't hurt. Do you make up these sayings yourself?
Kassier (laughs): Sleeves is a funny word for it! My art is a reflection of what is really there on Instagram. All this hype about yoga and self-knowledge, these motivational sayings, that exists. As with any joke, there is always a bit of truth in it. I get inspiration, but I don't copy anything. That would be boring.
Andy Kassier l 'Work Out' l 2018 l Edition of 3 + 1 AP l C-Print & Lightbox l 200 x 300 cm
Andy Treasurer
SPIEGEL: The photo of you on the horse is already four years old, so it dates from the businessman's pre-yoga days. How surprised were you that Harvard Business Manager selected it as the cover for an issue about narcissists?
Kassier: Oh, not particularly. My work is deliberately designed in such a way that it goes with many things in order to reach as many people as possible. As a GIF, I've hijacked millions of smartphones.
SPIEGEL: Are you a model for internet shaky images?
Kassier: Yes, I can keep up with Kim Kardashian in the top ten most popular »money GIFs« . I met a guy in New York who works for Giphy. I told him about my fictional character and so we went to the studio in New York and recorded GIFs, around 50 to 100 motifs. The most popular with users is one that I rain bills on. All of them together already have more than 800 million views. Another one that shows me with a bouquet of roses seems to be very successful on Tinder.
"Every shoot first costs me to overcome."
SPIEGEL: You can be photographed half-naked with a potted plant or a cowboy hat at your crotch or filmed clumsily dancing in pink pajamas. How easy is it for you to exhibit yourself like this?
Kassier: Every shoot costs me to overcome first. But in the end I am always very grateful. What you shouldn't forget is that I'm still the one in control of the images. I decide what is shown. I don't feel like I'm selling my body either. I look the same on the beach in swimming trunks.
SPIEGEL: Who is actually behind the camera?
Kassier: Either I use a tripod or I have friends who can help me. Each picture is staged in such a way that my helpers only have to press the button. Who then does that is irrelevant.
SPIEGEL: You have more than 12,000 fans on Instagram . Do you think everyone knows that your pictures are satire?
Kassier: Yes, I think so. Most of the followers come to my site through media reports or art campaigns. At the beginning, when nobody knew me, the series was more difficult to grasp. For example, a real estate guy from Vienna once wrote to me and was angry that I had so much money, but obviously fly economy class. When I explained the project, he thought it was so great that he invited me to Vienna. Unfortunately, the visit has not yet worked.
SPIEGEL: Supposedly, you can only afford your lifestyle because you only wear your suits once and then exchange them, according to the “Kölner Stadtanzeiger” in 2016. Is that correct?
Kassier (laughs): Yes, the things I buy for some shoots are actually returned afterwards. But that's what all photographers who don't work in the fashion industry do. Every advertising photo for a bank or insurance company is created this way. For certain roles, however, I also buy certain outfits secondhand and then have them tailored. The white pants I'm wearing in the picture with the white horse had been hanging in my closet for three years before the shoot took place.
SPIEGEL: So long had you planned the motif?
Kassier: Yes. I really wanted a photo on a white horse. But sometimes it just takes time until the right moment comes. I usually spend the winter in South Africa and asked my friends there who knew someone with a white horse. The horse that was actually scheduled for the shoot then got sick and I needed a replacement quickly. And then a friend answered and said she had a pony there, that was a few centimeters too small to be considered a horse.
SPIEGEL: You are riding a pony in the photo?
Kassier: Exactly. I couldn't have planned that better, because it makes me appear much bigger in relation to it. Incidentally, I observe this effect more often: Many who only know me from photos think I'm very tall. But I am not at all.
"The first world has maneuvered itself into a dead end."
SPIEGEL: In the summer of 2020, you could also watch your fictional character live in Berlin - in underpants and with fast food in the home office. How did that happen?
Kassier: I founded a gallery with friends for Berlin Art Week. My performance lasted five days from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and had two parts: In the first part, I sat in the home office as a businessman with a jacket and pink boxer shorts, talked to other art experts and artists and had them explain to me how to become successful as an artist. And in the second part I broke out of this world. To do this, we had a large pile of sand dumped in front of the door. Then I stood there, right next to a construction site, in a white outfit with a straw hat and painted upside-down palm trees: »palm down«. The upside-down palm tree as a symbol of paradise that is upside down.
SPIEGEL: This is how the businessman imagines art?
Kassier: Yes. He realized that the first world had maneuvered itself into a dead end. Whatever you do, it's wrong. If you go on vacation to Thailand, it's bad for the environment. If you don't fly, it's bad for tourism and the economy. The businessman is desperate because of this dilemma. Art appears to him to be the way out.
SPIEGEL: And how did you finance this performance?
Kassier: With the help of sponsors and the sale of the pictures. The palm edition was limited to 50. I now live from my art.
SPIEGEL: In your web shop you offer fortune cookies made of transparent acrylic and Kölsch glasses with your likeness. What's it all about?
Kassier: I studied in Cologn , and there is always a call for tenders at Art Cologne, to which students from the Art Academy for Media can submit drafts for the design of Kölsch glasses. I won there in 2016. And the idea for the fortune cookies came to me because the quotes of many CEOs are similar to the sayings in fortune cookies.
SPIEGEL: You mean they are just as interchangeable and meaningless?
Kassier: Not at all, the question here is more, what can I get out of it for myself? My fortune cookies are transparent, so there is no moment of expectation; this tension, which message will probably be in there. You can't break them or eat them either. Everything that makes a fortune cookie fun is missing, except for the funny saying. This reduction focuses on the content as well as the aesthetics and shape of the biscuit.
View the original article by navigating to the SPIEGEL Magazine website here
Image Credit: Andy Kassier called this picture "Naked snow". In his artistic work he looks for answers to currently socially relevant questions: What is happiness? How do I become successful? And how is masculinity portrayed? Photo: Andy Kassier