How much control do we have over the nature and the amount of information that we consume? How do the notions of truth and authenticity translate through the technologies that make up todays digitalized and hyperconnected lives? Are we focused and on what?
These are some of the questions that Hannah Hallermann (HAHA), a Berlin-based artist, is trying to pose with her work and with her latest solo exhibition titled “Information” at the HOTO Berlin. After studying fine arts, art history and philosophy at the Villa Arson art academy in Nice, she got her master‘s degree at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. Hannah engages with the social and political topics that make up our reality, picking them apart and questioning them through her sculptural works. Her art practice is viewed as a place for testing radical ideas and shifting her stance, keeping the essential ambiguity, that is much present in our lives, while dealing with serious issues. The viewer comes into contact with work that fosters critical thinking, one that is more vulnerable, resilient, and replete with choices. Referencing historian Yuval Harari, she highlights the challenge of navigating a world where censorship is achieved not through the withholding of information, but through its overwhelming flood.
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DSCENE Magazine Editor Pavle Banovic talks with Hannah about her art practice, the relationship she herself has with the dominant themes in her artistic research and practice, her latest solo show “Information” at HOBO Berlin, as well as censorship, freedom, importance of ambiguity and critical thinking.
Your upcoming exhibition at HOTO Berlin is titled “Information.” Can you tell us more about the meaning and importance of information in today’s society and in your own work? – My inspiration is the times we are currently living in. I find Yuval Harari’s quote very perceptive, where he claims that censorship today doesn’t operate by withholding information, but by flooding people with it. This torrent of information is everywhere. What tools and skills can we develop to deal with this endless stream of information?
This theme seems to be part of the socio-political issues and structures that you explore in your works in general. How do your research and production processes look in relation to them? – In my work I find forms for ambivalences Bringing together different contradicting materials and socio-political topics that hold creative tension. For instance, many of the “Adjusters” are made of inflated steel: I draw two-dimensional shapes and weld them together, then pump them up with water using a high-pressure hydroforming technique, until the metal deforms and dents. Several hundred litres of water were pushed into the human-sized “adjuster” in order to shape it under pressure. Although I initially draw a form, the way the shape ultimately reacts to the pressure is only partially predictable. The works are therefore situated in this tension between composition and chance.
I’m interested in where radical new ideas come from. How can we be open to external, informational stimuli while protecting the inner spaciousness needed to turn vast amounts of information into genuine insights.
In relation to the previous question, how do you deal with these issues in your personal life? How do you use the internet or stay informed about it? – I am going with the times and am open to and curious about the opportunities new technologies offer. In many ways I find it of enormous value that we have access to so much information and knowledge. Simultaneously I am challenged in many ways, for example not to drown in reactivity – the impulse to instantly engage, respond, repost but to protect my creative activity. So, I aim to stay in my internal tension for longer and observe what the process of holding this tension is like. What is it like to hold and stay with the contradictions that are inherent in our complex socio-political landscape? I think it has become very important for us all to work on skills such as contemplation and discernment and then to engage in conversations that allow us to investigate complexity and contradiction. And I am watching out for not falling into the trap of cancel culture.
Your sculptures are very material and grounded in their physicality, but often deal with the topics of digital and abstract nature. How do you see this relationship? What does the physical form mean to you? – Good question. I am extremely drawn to narratives of ancient symbols, always searching for ways to make metaphors for topical issues “materialise”.
Tools can be used for construction or destruction, for care or harm, for progress or regress, it is up to us how we use them.
The horse blinders are somewhat of a central theme to this exhibition; can you tell us more about their context inside the exhibition? Do you often reappropriate objects in your art practice? – I’m interested in where radical new ideas come from. How can we be open to external, informational stimuli while protecting the inner spaciousness needed to turn vast amounts of information into genuine insights. The “Adjusters” all have hinges with which the field of vision and the inside-outside ratio can be adjusted. When does a certain position get frozen into dogma? How quickly can focus turn into ignorance? The “Adjusters” demand constant realignment.
Your works are often ambiguous rather than overt. Why do you think this is important, and what kind of quality does it add to the work? –
My work is concerned with raising questions, not giving answers. Since we live in times of extreme polarisation: The internet can force us into echo chambers and we end up living in our information bubble where our views constantly get confirmed. Things can then seem clearer than they are. But our reality is more complex. Ambiguity can therefore at first feel frustrating, or even scary. We want to be certain. It’s the people who claim to be certain who get the biggest platforms in our culture. But how do we skilfully navigate and constantly adjust to a more ambiguous reality?
Do you think contemporary visual art has the potential to enact real change in a broader society? – Art, to me, is a fertile testing ground for radical ideas and a great tool to shape our views and attitudes about the challenges ahead. Yet I wonder how inclusive the art world is: If you want a broader impact it would help to ensure a broader audience and co-thinkers and -creators. In some ways maybe the art world needs to be careful not to get stuck in their own information echo chamber.
My work is concerned with raising questions, not giving answers. Since we live in times of extreme polarisation: The internet can force us into echo chambers and we end up living in our information bubble where our views constantly get confirmed.
Do you have something that never stops inspiring you to create—a book, a person, or a place? – People’s minds do!
What’s next for you? What have you been thinking about and researching lately? – In my last series I have been very interested in the idea that it is always up to us how we use our tools. Tools can be used for construction or destruction, for care or harm, for progress or regress, it is up to us how we use them. I am increasingly interested in looking at the dynamic of use and abuse. When do tools that we use end up using us? Stay tuned.
Hannah Hallermann (HAHA) “Information” Exhibition is on see from April 27th to June 14th at HOTO Gallery, Berlin.
Keep up with Hannah Hallermann on Instagram – @hannah_hallermann and HOTO Gallery – @hoto_gallery
