Klára Hosnedlová

On a dark metal wall hang large, curved spines interrupted by colourful and slightly translucent gashes from a clawed animal, leaving crimson, citrine, and lilac imprints. Embedded in these spines are also glimpses of the human figure with illuminated scars crawling up their torso, or one’s gentle touch that draws shapes in oil on the back of another. Along the floor of the hall in Hamburger Bahnhof, geometric puddles captivate you, reflecting the light washing in from all sides and your own face looking down. With speakers resting atop, you come to realise the puddles are not real but made of resin, pushing you to question what you find true. Looking into the puddle, you could be tricked into believing that it holds small fish or a frog and reach your hand in to grab a piece of moss, only to find the concrete slabs underneath.

Throughout embrace, there is a common theme of fire. Embroidered cotton on canvas depicts various detached people and their flames. One holds a match as yarn crawls up to their chest. Another crouches down with two matches encircling a butterfly. The fire contained on the canvases only ever left during a performance outside the building with dancers holding torches at the inauguration of the installation. As the flame warms the subjects, it creeps out into real life offering a sensory experience, as well as a bit of whiplash, looking back and forth between the pieces and performance trying to distinguish the two. Chances are that in a few months, the very performance you saw will be represented in a new work of Hosnedlová, fluttering between time through her art. 

Although fire is very present in her work, she has described this as ironic since her pieces are extremely flammable and a small fire would erase her entire installation in the blink of an eye. Made from flax fibres and hemp, the delicate tapestries look anything but. Grandiose and imposing, you become engulfed in these pieces, offering an immersive element to her art. Hosnedlová’s choice of material reflects her Czech background. Flax cultivation was one of the most prosperous industries in the nation until post-WWII when cotton took over, imposed by the demand from Western Europe and the Americas. Both materials being present in her installation, be it the tapestries or the embroidered canvasses, juxtapose the local and colonial elements that structure life and society. 

The cotton embroidery also calls back to her foundational training as an artist. Embroidery, considered a domestic form of art, was not validated or understood to the same extent as painting or sculpting. It was —and still is— seen as a feminine practice, closely tied to being a housewife or granny and not a legitimate medium. Hosnedlová talks back to this by showing the power of embroidery to create detailed and textured imagery that painters would envy. Each element of the artist’s work has a purpose, even if you can’t see it from the start.