Inside. Osnabruck — Owen Pratt

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and a war in Ukraine, Kunsthalle Osnabrück sets out to explore the question: What’s the current state of our hope and desire for love, identity and belonging? This year’s theme “Romanticism” uses the eponymous art and literature movement as a distorting mirror with which to examine the current state of society. Sweeping across Germany and Europe, hardly any other movement has managed to shape such a strong collective feeling situated between departure, nostalgia and nationalism through aesthetic means. Set against the backdrop that is the museum’s medieval architecture, the Kunsthalle wants to investigate whether the current sense of global turmoil has inspired a comeback of the visual and linguistic worlds of Romanticism. The exhibition programme of the annual theme includes solo exhibitions by the Forum Democratic Culture and Contemporary Art, Anna Haifisch, Gabriella Hirst, Irène Mélix, Cemile Sahin, Andrzej Steinbach, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings.

Working across film, painting, drawing and performance, Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings address the socio-cultural and political structures that reinforce conservatism and discriminatory practices within and around the LGBTQ+ community. For their solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück, the artists will present a new installation, Inside, which combines a multi-channel sound work with fifteen found dollhouses representing various domestic architectural styles. Sourced in the UK, the houses date from the late 19th century to the present day. Inside represents the artists’ investigation into the relationship between architecture and identity construction, particularly the bourgeois house as a symbol of gendered behaviour, political power and civic duty.

From a feminist perspective, they examine the home as a site of oppression and labour, as well as a historical site where upper-class women have been able to utilise their social standing, wealth and property to exercise political and social power. The installation’s sound element has been composed by Owen Pratt. 50-minutes in length, the sound work comprises many fragments of both found and original material. Speakers placed in each dollhouse emit a cacophony of sound, at times acting in unison and at times alone; exploring the full physical and psychological potential of the home as a generator of infinite social relations. The exhibition is accompanied by an essay by Huw Lemmey.

Photos by Lucie Marsmann.