Question: Karl, did anything change in your art after this event that never happened?
Karl Renz: Yeah, it was changed. Before, there was this “wisdom of emptiness” thing, totally, and every painting was black. There were simply black paintings and black sculptures. Everything was black. Emptiness! Black!
And then there was an outburst of this “thing”. You go to the emptiness and you get totally empty of an idea and then, when you are absolutely empty, fullness comes. Totally. In that moment, total emptiness becomes fullness. That’s like what they call “an outburst of love”. When you reach an extreme point of emptiness, of wisdom, the fullness can come. Because the emptiness of Heart contains the fullness of existence.
Suddenly, it was fullness, and from that moment on, everything was bright colors. So it changed from that moment on – boom! – it was really like – poof! I was really surprised. Black and then – boom! – the board was full of bright colors and things. But still, I make monochrome things, and totally informal things. Total structure, out of anything. So both are there now, both extremes, but there’s nothing in between, really.