There is a sense of longing in the works by Flaka Haliti. They have a subtle humour, which not seldom shifts into something tragic. Flaka Haliti uses this humour as a strategy for acquainting herself with the world. Her poetic objects, photographs and drawings testify to how she gives form to the intangible, or literally gives it a face, familiarising herself with the world in this way.Haliti also uses Joe, a fictional character and the artist’s alter ego, to venture into the confusion of the present. Joe is a genderless character, who appears in Haliti’s artistic work in a multitude of forms: Whether as a sponge with self-adhesive wiggle eyes or a two-legged sculpture in curved steel—Joe spooks through Haliti’s exhibitions, embodying an (artist-) individual under the pressure of neo-liberal living and working conditions, constant self-renewal, (re-)presentation and productivity.
read more
Flaka Haliti works with everyday objects and aesthetics such as Ikea bags, children’s drawings, in-store displays, junk and barriers. In her works, these become, for example, a ghost (Concerned by the Ghost Without Being Bothered, 2017) or a robot [Its Urgency Got Lost in Reverse (While Being in Constant Delay), 2017]. With just a few strokes, Haliti gives these non-human beings such charismatic features that they immediately become our friends.The abstract and yet at the same time concrete works by Haliti initially seem cheerful, yet they frequently point to questions of systemic violence and dubious authority of interpretation, to limitations as well as the overcoming of them. Haliti reflects on our existence in the midst of constructed inclusions and exclusions. Large sculptures based on UN security barriers refer to territorial, political borders, while a five-metre-long curtain with a celestial gradation of colour and the title Just Hanging Around symbolises gentle—though nonetheless challenging—obstacles.Curated by Anna Sabrina SchmidText: Kunsthaus HamburgPhotos: Kunsthaus Hamburg
