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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Open from Tuesday to
Sunday 12 pm → 6 pm

Admission always free
ArchiveExhibition
7 Sep 96until19 Oct 96

Claudia Hart

Dr. Faustie’s Guide to Real Estate Development and Face Dancing

555 Hamilton St

A detail of work by Claudia Hart. It is an illustration of a blue dog popping his head out of a yellow paper bag. A poem is written above the dog's head.

Claudia Hart is a Berlin-based artist whose recent projects are a pastiche of illustrations derived from children's books and writing from various influential texts which explore how individuals compromise themselves within systems of power. These projects have been realized both in the form of exhibitions and published books.

For the Contemporary Art Gallery, Hart is presenting a new series of thirty-two gouache paintings on paper entitled Dr. Faustie's Guide to Real Estate Development plus a new video projection entitled Face Dancing. In Dr. Faustie, as in her earlier work, she tackles the theme of evil and the ways in which people ingratiate and adapt themselves to power. It synthesizes various sources, among them Faust, Parts I and Il by Goethe; Goethe and His Age by George Lukacs; All That is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity by Marshall Berman; and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. With irony and humour, Hart interprets Carnegie's course as a dialogue between Mephisto and Faust that plays off the original Goethe text. This project is directly inspired by issues of real estate development, speculation and a pumped-up economy written about allegorically by Goethe in the early 19th century. Hart proposes that this example has its parallels in post-unification Berlin and post­-Expo Vancouver.

Having exhibited widely in Europe and the United States, this is Claudia Hart's first exhibition in Canada.

Eight works of drawing are mounted on the gallery walls. They vary in size but share the same light pink background. The style of drawing mimics comics: texts and pink bears appear in the squares.
An installation view of a gallery space shows drawings by the same artist on the walls. Drawings vary in size but share the same light pink background. The style of drawing mimics comic books.
Eleven drawings are installed in the gallery. In a comic book style formatting, certain characters such as a pink bear dressed in blue and blue docs are repeatedly depicted in different scenes.
Two artworks are visible in this photograph. A comic-styled drawing of a pink bear is installed on the back wall. A video work of a woman in a dark blue background is on the front wall.

Documents

Essay: “Not an Angel: Claudia Hart,” Peter Culleypdf10mb

Publications & Editions

PublicationClaudia Hart$10.00
A detail of work by Claudia Hart. It is an illustration of a blue dog popping his head out of a yellow paper bag. A poem is written above the dog's head.
Eight works of drawing are mounted on the gallery walls. They vary in size but share the same light pink background. The style of drawing mimics comics: texts and pink bears appear in the squares.
An installation view of a gallery space shows drawings by the same artist on the walls. Drawings vary in size but share the same light pink background. The style of drawing mimics comic books.
Eleven drawings are installed in the gallery. In a comic book style formatting, certain characters such as a pink bear dressed in blue and blue docs are repeatedly depicted in different scenes.
Two artworks are visible in this photograph. A comic-styled drawing of a pink bear is installed on the back wall. A video work of a woman in a dark blue background is on the front wall.