Koen Hauser
Information
 

Kroniek der Lichtwerkers (2008), video still

1 The core of my artistic practice is the act of creation through craftsmanship and appliance of a wide variety of techniques both old and new, related to the perspective of so-called media archeology ︎︎︎.

Historical images and ‘the archival’ function both as sources of inspiration as well as material to be applied in the work itself. 

Most projects from recent years can be considered amalgamations;  eclectic mixes of conceptual notions and visual elements that together form a network of associations and connections to be interpreted as a whole. 

My work ultimately originates from the realm of metaphysics. 


Artist Statement
I like to play magic with photographs. The works that emerge from it I consider photographic works—rooted in the logic of the photographic, yet unbound from the expectations of the medium.

Much of my process happens in a space that’s hard to locate—part intuition, part association, part exploration of tools and materials. Theory inevitably filters in: philosophy, psychology, mythology, and art history all leave their traces. But unlike in academic artistic research, these references don’t arrive at a conclusion or argument. They’re not there to structure a narrative—much more they haunt it, like echoes or undercurrents.

Although a fair part of my artistic process takes place in the virtual realm of reasoning and imagination, for me the essence of my works lies in the visceral—the way an image carries weight, the way form, light, and space resonate beyond words. Applying a wide array of techniques plays a central role—not only as a tool, but as a way of thinking through making.

Through this material and intuitive approach, I often draw from the archival or paraphrase the familiar, allowing archetypes, clichés, and philosophical notions to blur into something more phantasmagorical.

Despite the abundance of visual aesthetics and techniques applied, for me the ‘photographic’ – being a representation of reality which determines our perception of reality itself – stays at the center of my practice. As a metaphor for the notion of philosophical idealism, it discloses the realm of metaphysics as the principle source of my work.