Cosima Hawemann
Painting
25.03. – 08.05.2022
Finissage Sun. 8.05 / 4-7p.m
Exhibition opening: Fri. 25.03.2022 | 7 p.m
Introduction to the exhibition: Svetlana Chernyshova
Opening hours: Wed.– Fri. 3–7p.m | Sat. 2–6p.m
Cosima Hawemann Cosima Hawemann overpaints photographs and transfers them from their familiar spheres of medial everydayness into a combination of the representational and the abstract. She creates figures in between dream and reality. Hawemann is interested in the phenomenon of memory and its limited reliability. Her landscapes and figures oscillate in a painterly state between dissolution and manifestation. Cosima Hawemann overpaints polyester fabric exposed with photo emulsion. In doing so, she treats the fabric to create a moiré effect. Some parts of the paintings are see-through.
The title of the exhibition is based on the movie INLAND EMPIRE by David Lynch. As a starting point for her solo exhibition INVERSE EMPIRE at COELNER ZIMMER in Düsseldorf INVERSE EMPIRE Hawemann photographed people in the landscape and landscapes in which, for example, boats or huts can be seen that refer to a former presence of one or more people. The photographs were taken in the fall of 2020 in South Tyrol and Bavaria, among other places. Additionally, there are edited portraits from international magazines on view where Hawemann plays with the visual habits of the viewers. The found originals were digitally processed and painted over on print and polyester fabric.
Hawemann works on her motifs until a luminous, psychedelic negative of reality emerges, which transforms into a strange and unnaturally altered landscape. The accumulation and intensification of weather extremes such as heat, drought and storms pose a great danger to the forest. This weakens the trees and pest infestations by insects is one result. Climate change endangers individual tree species but also entire forest ecosystems as a result.
Cosima Hawemann combines photography and painting as well as the representational and the abstract in her painting. Hawemann's works explore the relationship between the media of photography and painting and play with the visual habits of the viewer.
Cosima Hawemann graduated Düsseldorf Art Academy where she studied from 1997 to 2004 in the class of Prof. Jörg Immendorff, among others. She is a Meisterstudent of Prof. A.R. Penck.
Cosima Hawemann's paintings are represented in many national institutions and international private collections.
