Andrea Himmelstoß/engl.

Andrea Himmelstoß

Archetypes: people, models, model people


Translated by Stefanie Mohr

An essential criterion for explaining the world is obsolete: The omnipotence of genes has long been discounted. The result is confusing, fascinating, magnificent, terrifying, and results in the question of what man is. The way that Guido and Johannes Häfner constantly attempt to answer this question is almost scientific. Dissecting and analyzing, they discover the fundamental structures, work on a synthetic explanation of humanity, and search for the essential, for the nature of man.

But reduction to the important aspects hardly seems possible today. Humanity itself seems no longer to exist, Adam and Eve have had their day. What the artists encounter on their quest is too multifaceted. Modern man has too many aspects, he can and must fulfill too many functions. As a result, the artist makes use of a very human method of explaining the world. He wants to sort. Curious about the world and mankind, he asks: what characterizes a man who is a politician? Where are the female attitudes in Manga figures? How is dominance exercised, how is submission?

The answers lead to archetypes. These are different than stereotypes, which is a natural consequence of detailed investigation. But they find their form. This form is bulky when Johannes Häfner graphically portrays his archetypes. As though they wanted to escape the two dimensions of the paper, his compositions refuse access, hide meaning behind diversity, and yet are immediately recognizable with their earth-shattering power. This differs from the three-dimensional archetypes of Guido Häfner. They seem to long for a return to the more gentle reality of the original two-dimensionality of the steel plate. Recognizable and vulnerable – but extremely potent – they withdraw immediately at the moment of recognition. The fact that irresistible attraction and confusing rejection depend upon and support one another, unifies the works of the two brothers. The things that these two heads (which are kindred not only in a literal sense) create in the iterative creative process, seem to drift apart and simultaneously approach each other.

This strong disunity becomes palpable in the work of the Häfner Brothers and raises the question of where it comes from. Is it the disunity of mankind itself, which searches for its view of life and roots in its open world? Or does this reflect the brotherly disunity that comes from the same origin but independent paths and which is compensated for in art? Both are represented, both can be derived. Because both are of universal importance. The Big Bang, the origin of all things human, led to multifaceted development, is reflected in the relationship of the brothers, and ultimately requires that each measure themselves against the other. Self-awareness and knowledge of the world cannot be separated from one another.

Thus, the Häfner Brothers dissect. They take what they find in the world in a happy, provoking, even mischievous manner and create from this - no, not a world of their own, but a suggestion for the interpretation of the world. They cluster their findings by developing archetypes. They began with E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Automate Olimpia, who provides Nathanel, the protagonist of the Sandmann, with the last push toward madness. In an expressive staccato, Guido und Johannes Häfner give their interpretations vehement expression. Guido in steel sculptures, wood sculptures, steel and chainsaw woodcarvings, Johannes in computer graphics, painting, and linocuts. Not to mention their bibliophilic art books from ICHverlag.

The archetypes have changed over the years. While the archetype of Olimpia is still related to the creation of an automaton by a human and questions whether humans are the creation of a superior power, whether nature or an individual person, the following archetypes expand the question. They place the focus on the archetype created by many people, the media, society. Although art figures like the Königskasper were initially the figural media, which were a portrayal of mankind in a confusing world using multifaceted, sometimes comically inspired, often refreshing language, the Häfner Brothers now abandon this cloak of searching for meaning and confront the task that logically follows analysis. Fragments of - often medial – the tangible are combined in Johannes Häfner’s latest archetypes to create powerful statements. Complex things are reduced. Heads of politicians are uniformly de-familiarized and pose the question regarding archetypes in a new manner. The computer graphic artist does not even shrink away from the I. He places himself at the focus of the external perception with the archetype I as an exploited and simultaneously exploiting individual. This interconnection, better integration, is also transformed into the complex structures of the latest sculptures by Guido Häfner. The journey of the steel plate to a sculpture results in the more complex three-dimensionality. The hidden power of the artistic creative process is only vaguely perceptible beneath the powerful blue oil paint of the latest archetypes or becomes transparent with each weld that the welding torch leaves on the material. The cloak of nationalization falls across the creation and is revealed at the same instant.

The iterative process between origin and formation manifests itself in the dimensions of the Häfner Brothers in a peculiarly harmonious manner, in spite of the very different materials. Sometimes, alarming answers are given to the question of incarnation in the here and now. But this much is comforting: The search is not over.