Sina Hensel
Institutional residence in collaboration with Sala d’Art Jove and HISK
August 2019
Sina Hensel. Germany, 1986
What is the duration of a cigarette being smoked, of a seed becoming a plant, of a washed fabric to dry, of a cucumber becoming a scent, of an envelope becoming a memory? The works of Sina Hensel all bear the notion of transformation and the passing of time. The gentle observation of quotidian events underlines how unremarkable situations can be compelling acts, associated with a complex infrastructure of environmental relationships. Whether she grows coloring plants from seeds in a greenhouse or different types of algae whose biomass will dye fabric, whether she produces pigment from smoke or a scent out of cucumber, whether she travels to a mountain in the South of France to acquire a pigment that is only harvested there, the actions that take place beforehand to gather material are embedded in the layers of paint. A sediment of time or a pre-oil equation. Her studio becomes a place of cohabitation, the different species acting as her accomplices while working, studying her while she is studying them. One material is there for or because of the other. Sometimes these processes of growth can take up to years, not following any code of efficiency, yet demanding her kind care and attentiveness. Dealing with the texture of transformation, the works, clothed in light, are bound to alter. Ambient processes, that support change, seasonality and vanishing are her interest. However, the works themselves talk softly, images of rest and quiet, their form commanded by the process. This being the case, the spectator becomes aware of a ‘here and now’ that is experienced by following the path that the different fragments of her exhibition suggest. They, quite subtly, keep asking from what overflow of ramified responsibility the being runs.
