ART CRUSH 💕
Anosmia. Existentialism. Digital-Analogue. Pandemic Art.
In this post-modern, post-digital, WuFlu-plagued world, what does it mean to be human anymore? What is meaningful? Artist Cathrin Hoffmann addresses these quandaries as pandemic 2.0 washes over us like a rogue tsunami (thanks, China → CUNTS!) and Western Civ teeters on the brink.
Hailing from Hamburg, Germany, the visionary, hot to trot, self-taught paint-slinger just launched a new exhibit at London’s excellent Public Gallery. Invoking elements of Søren Kierkegaard’s existentialist philosophy, Cathrin’s oeuvre, titled, ‘It Still Smells of Nothing,’ ponders the ongoing pandemic, human perception and various metaphysical motifs around alienation, isolation, existence and subjectivity.
Her paintings and sculptures shift in scale, alter our perceptions of things and rattle our artistic radar; her technique is fucking exemplary! Cathrin’s work suspends you in a soothing and angst-ridden present simultaneously, providing visual-mental feedback loops where you experience the pleasure of absorbing the richly composed pieces but not knowing their intrinsic meaning. Except your senses get lit up and you start to brood over the existential vertigo that has come to characterize daily life during this grody, never-ending Made in China viral spiral.
“There is a quote from Søren Kierkegaard that I could not get out of my head while I was working on these pieces,” she told VIVISXN. “This is where the title comes from: ‘I stick my finger in existence — it smells of nothing.’” Cathrin goes on: “BLM, political extremism, conspiracy theories, cancel culture, lockdowns, and so on, make it feel like our divided society is about to explode while we are sitting at home watching Netflix. It’s like an overload from which one tries to escape. Trying to ignore reality, swiping through your Instagram feed echo chambers, watching YouTube, listening to podcasts and getting bored. I caught myself doing this and got angry. Coziness in existence is not what we should be aiming for, and that creates a conflict within myself.”
Anyway, Cathrin’s stuff is big, bold, raw, surreal, sassy and conflictual. We love her reductive, sociological, representational paintings/sculptures, twisted figuration, philosophical gusto and digital-cum-analogue expressions. Check it…
This post was authored by VIVISXN’s proprietary AI Thought Bot®
Images via Cathrin Hoffmann
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