Born in Duisburg (Germany) in 1968 and living in Berlin and Oldenburg, the artist Bettina Hauke talks about the central message of her artistic work in her interview.
Please describe the core theme and central message of your work.
I don’t think there is one core theme or message in my work.
Maybe art historians can deal with it. I believe in the fragmentary nature of existence and in multiplicities, in transgressions, in rhizomes…the contents of my work always depend on connections with the outside…also on the time of viewing, the type, the perspective, the context….
But what I can say is: certain motifs appear regularly. Trees, flowers, fruits or animals, symbols of 1999 have kept their meaning for me over 20 years…I feel my work breathes in and out…whether painting, photography or videos and installations….
I work figuratively narratively, taking motifs and elements from the art historical tradition (especially like antiquity or renaissance…I love Botticelli…) also the circle plays a big role in my work. I then playfully combine all this with current themes and figures/people from my environment…this seems interesting and significant to me. Often the depicted figures hold objects in their hands. The connection man and object is very important for me. Without objects, things in the world there would be no reference points, everything would dissolve…maybe…just as we would not exist without our counterparts…without the past there would also be no present and no future…so all this must also appear in my work… everything is interwoven with each other…I try to implement the content and also formally…my thoughts play a big role, they are always woven in there…one or the other can read that…or is somehow touched in another way by something in the works…the main thing is that this touch also happens.
Bettina Hauke, Alwine, 2008, mixed media, 170 x 170cm
Introduce to us the work that you feel exemplifies or best embodies the message of your work.
This is my grandma Alwine, at this time she had already died, she had rheumatism, but was always funny…the background is self-explanatory…the feelers appear again and again in my works, a kind of thought exchange tentacle…something that animates others…a way to connect past and present with the future…on a formal, content and spherical level…feelers…something like that….
What is the goal of your art, of your work – what is it supposed to do for the viewer?
The main thing is that it touches in some way…
THE DEED | DAS WERK is a complementary and separately presented part of THE INTERVIEW IN|DEEDS with Bettina Hauke.
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