Excerpt from:

“DAMAGE” AND OTHER RELATIONSHIPS –
ON XENIA HAUSNER’S ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT

PETER ASSMANN

“Reality has collapsed into images of images …”

Phil Patton

Traces of violence – within and without – are inevitable here, a violence that declares itself immediately and likewise brings very private matters into the public eye through a pictorial exposure; this fashions authentic intimacy into a mostly interrogative message and demands reactions with massive clarity. Her works are interpersonal social descriptions. They are deeply personal but transcend individuality in their search for truthfulness.

The people portrayed in the photo paintings of Xenia Hausner are always involved in relationships. The compositions themselves appear as the sum of their experiences, and are assembled as a concentration of large-scale dramatic events in a kind of mini drama, but also offer extensive mirror situations.

The experience of the portrayed person is a central element of the image in the composition itself, but is also fashioned as an iconic communication lane to the viewer. Body posture, eyes, the direction of the person’s gaze and the continuously deliberate application of colour are formulated for the viewer and presented as communication in a relationship. This is introduced into the event in human size and presented in segments, allowing it to participate and take part in the varied experiences in relationships which are composed in these staged images. Above all, relationship is replicated here: of course, one sees over and over again the relationship between the sexes bound in erotic attraction and its complications, the “desire game”, rivalries, but also friendship.

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