Not Sleeping Well
Paintings and Drawings by
Hanna Mandelbaum
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Artist Statement
This exhibit consists of two separate series in one space.
“Not Sleeping Well,” the title of this show, is borrowed from a caption that accompanies one of my drawings. This image, along with all of the other prints, was originally created in a sketchbook that I kept while I was studying in Berlin (Spring, 2002). During that time I was suffering from alternating bouts of insomnia, fatigue and nightmares. I spent my waking hours documenting the images of my dreams as well as the surrealism of the city that I encountered. The images floating in the black mats are recalled from sleep, the ones framed in a more traditional fashion are from observation. My surroundings shaped every aspect of my work. Berlin is a city weighed down with sadness and history; it attempts to shed the pounds of its tormented past through a steady diet of hedonism, renovation and relativism. All attempts to hide the past, whether it’s the gleaming new mall at Potzdammerplatz or the hip boutiques of Mitte, are denuded every night when the city’s character seeps through in dreams. I think this is why Berliners party around the clock – coming home at 5am qualifies as an early night.
The paintings are more recent; all of them were completed within the last year. My goal with these paintings is to create images that command attention, but I suppose that is every artist’s goal with every image. In all of my paintings, movement supersedes subject matter. Color and form, light and dark, are juxtaposed in such a way as to draw the eye around in constant motion with ongoing revelations of interconnectedness and a ‘looping’ effect within the piece. My more recent, and in my view successful, pieces Mum and Draumen also introduce the element of greater depth accompanied by distortions of space. My works are games for the eye and mind, so come and play for a while.
Hanna Mandelbaum
Individual Works
For more of Hanna's work, go to her website at
www.hannajanepaints.com