World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 52 - Gabriela Hajzler
Gabriela Hajzler (37) from Novi Sad recently had an exhibition at the Amsterdam MLB gallery entitled “Dwellers”. She shared this exhibition with her fellow townsman and friend Dunja Nedeljkovic.
Dwellers refers to residents of the city. Basically, all the cities of the world, but we sure recognize Gabriela’s city of birth, the city where she still lives in: Novi Sad, the capital of the Vojvodina, the historic town on the Danube, with its Habsburg flavour and its various minorities.
The secrets of intimate life
The dwellers in the works of Gabriela Hajzler are in the closed space of an open window. We rarely see their faces. They are silhouettes, volatile and undefined. Gabriela: ’It is an echo of reality or a dream. In my theme: the Faces of the City, the space is at the same time inwards directed and outwards directed. On one hand it protects but on the other side it reveals.’
The windows of the facades stand for something transcendental. ‘A transition from public to personal, from matter to idea. The elements in the drawings and prints play their own game and repeat themselves in different ways. The rhythm they provide is like the heartbeat of the city and it corresponds to the pulse of the inhabitants.’
In every work you can find more layers. ‘Each work is like the beginning of a sentence or a story but no picture finishes the initial thought. They are fragments of life cought in a passing moment, frozen so we can look at them and they stay in the sphere between memory and oblivion. It brings us into the mysteries of the intimate life.’
Black and white photos
She starts her works by making collagraphy, the creation of an image by means of adhesives and construction by the addition of superposed materials. She uses a ‘card’ of a door in more drawings and prints. She plays with it. Sometimes she even brings a piece of genuine curtain.
In this exhibition she shows a new development in her work: the use of real pictures of the people in the windows. She took pictures of her close friends. Gabriela: ‘I photographed them in their intimate micro-worlds. I sneaked into their houses, present and absent at the same time, and cought the moment of their introspection. Moments when they were most themselves.’
The black and white photos are taken with an analogue camera. They are transferred with the technique of alugraphy. This technique enhances the black and white contrast. Gabriela: ‘It provides insight into the inner space. The characters of the residents are connected to their surroundings – the facade – by a free, playful line.’ The original photos were exhibited separately.
Big game
Art is a big game, she thinks. ‘I like to play and innovate. It helps if you have a childlike soul. As long as you play you develop yourself. In this way you can stay young and active a long time as an artist.’
Gabriela was in the same high school as her friend Dunja, the School for Design Bogdan Šuput. Then she went to the Art Academy of Novi Sad, located in the Petrovaradin Fortress.There she graduated in 2005. In 2011 she finished her postgraduate studies at the department of manual print of this Academy. She had several exhibitions in her own country Serbia, Croatia, Austria, Slovenia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Hungary and the Netherlands; in Amsterdam at Ella Arps’ Gallery and now at MLB Gallery.
Criticizing ugliness with beauty
She teaches at the high school of arts, drawing, manual printing and theory of form.
What is the philosophy behind her art? Gabriela: ‘We are always in a hurry and therefore miss the essence of life: the beauty of existence. In a work of art you can emphasize the beauty. The language of the media highlights the ugly things. When I had to defend my graduate thesis I used it as an argument in the discussion with my professor. By deploying beauty you criticize the ugly side of life.’
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