Flowers only talk about you
Good news sis, at paradise, supermarket shelves are full of flowers that only talk about you. Flowers only talk about you, 134cm x 123cm, Acrylic on 2mdf panels, January 2024.
One dream can hide another
Look at both sides, one dream can hide another. One dream can hide another, Acrylic on 3 wooden panels, 80cm x 121,5cm, November 2023
Scissors never come back, dit-elle
N’avez-vous jamais remarqué et c’est une vraie question…like all those borrowed words, scissors never come back, dit-elle. Peut-être et c’est une vraie réponse, font-ils un pas de côté. Scissors never come back, dit-elle, Acrylic on 2 wooden panels, 2(80cm x 60cm), November 2023.
Au-delà des fleurs et de la mousse
Love you beyond des fleurs et de la mousse It’s 2p.m./The mystery remains je t’adore mon coeur, Au-delà des fleurs et de la mousse, Acrylic on 2 wooden panels, 122cm x 148cm, October 2023.
Who has never dreamed of
I made those 2 in 1whose format is smaller than usual for an exhibition scheduled in late December in Paris. In swiping to the right, you can see that each one flourishes on its own but I designed them as a whole and frankly, it would be a heartbreak to see them leave each in a different home… Saying that, the dilemma keeps going on… Who has never dreamed of, Acrylic on 2 wooden panels, 160cm x 120cm or 2(80cm x 60cm), September 2023.
Memories take a nap
Words fly away. Shadows remain. Memories take a nap in between. Memories take a nap, Acrylic on 2 wooden panels, 120cm x 150cm, September 2023.
Say cheese for the pic
Say cheese for the pic guys! I could have said « say Provolone », this soooo delicious Italian cheese but it doesn’t work the same… Say cheese for the pic, Acrylic on 2 wooden panels, 122cm x 193cm, July 2023
On n’est pas sérieux, quand on a 17 ans
« Nuit de Juin! Dix-sept ans! On se laisse griser. June night! And seventeen! You get tipsy… Ce soir là, vous rentrez aux cafés éclatants, That evening, your return to the cafés gleam, Vous demandez des bocks ou de la limonade You call out for beer or lemonade On n’est pas sérieux, quand on a 17 ans You’re not serious, when you’re seventeen Et qu’on a des tilleuls verts sur la promenade And the lime-trees are green on the Parade. », Arthur Rimbaud, 23 Septembre 1870. On n’est pas sérieux quand on a 17 ans Et qu’on a des tilleuls verts sur la promenade, Acrylic on 2 wooden panels, 122cm x 193cm, July 2023.
no U-TURN
It’s all in the color. In French, ultra marine translates into « bleu outremer ». As a teenager, I was as fascinated by the words as the color itself. The words speak of a blue that would be beyond the seas. A blue that would also be black and violet. A deep blue that doesn’t allow U-Turns. no U-TURN, Acrylic on 3 wooden panels, 123cm x 210cm, June 2023.
Billions of wooden tears
On the scale of a life time, it’s been billions of years that we were never together. Billions of wooden tears, Acrylic on 3 wooden panels, 122cm x 218cm, May 2023
In the shade of wooden tears
From bygone to bygone, as life passed, echoes of our wooden tears remain. In the shade of wooden tears, 123cm x 230cm, Acrylic on 3 panels of wood. May 2023
NOT ALL DREAMS COME TRUE
This work was inspired by a beautiful scene when I was a tiny little girl… I could called it « Lunch with my friends » because of the innocence, the joyfulness and a little bit of craziness that are part of moments shared in childhood. But when I saw the result of my work, some thoughts less happy telescoped the whole and it appeared to me that our world, our society easily and often destroys all this innocence by producing violence against children, women and even Mother Nature… Racism, violence against children, women even Mother Nature are all the result of this suffocating patriarchal society. NOT ALL DREAMS COME TRUE, Acrylic on wood, 2(122cm x 95cm)= 122cm x 190cm. April 2023.
PUNK POETRY
« Nothing beautiful can be summed up », Paul Valéry. The same can be applied to what constitutes a person. Denying it is a boulevard of hatred and rejection. We are constantly changing. We are composite like chipboard from do-it-yourself stores. In fact, we tinker from the first day to the last. Hope you a beautiful craft day! PUNK POETRY, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm. March 2023
Take Five
Except for eyes and pattern from her clothes, I almost entirely made this work with knife. It was a challenge to decide if she was crying in pain or anything else until I added a little bit of white on her teeth and in a split second, she seemed hilarious… How strange ! Even at a speed run, take the necessary time to question your needs or supposed needs like those high heels ready to trip you up or this alpha male car about to make you a fishtail. TAKE FIVE, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm.March 2023
Dull Echoes II
Normality is deadly…which is an evidence but literally deadly. It excludes, divides. It plunges everyone who adopts it into a deep sleep. It is certainly a comfortable trap but no one, especially no artist should succumb to it under any circumstances except Valentine’s Day which is an opportunity to share again and again « Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind », fantastic film by Michel Gondry. Abyssal thought to those who suffer in Turkey and Syria. Dull Echoes II, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm. February 2023
Dull Echoes
From farewell to farewell, echoes remain. Hopefully, and it’s no luxury, there are combs made for styling wigs or rugs, to hide dust. The rest is a dull echo. I made this painting with the remaining echoes and a little bit of wonder. Dull Echoes, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm. January 2023
DO NOT CRY ON GRASS
Do not cry on grass. Do not cry on grass. Do not cry on grass. Do… there is so much pain in this world that it would be very tempting to lie crying on the grass sometimes. At the risk of seeing lawns around the world totally flooded in a sea of tears from an ever increasing number of people, it seems appropriate to me, not to deny access but only tears. In that clever way, the world can keep turning. DO NOT CRY ON GRASS, Acrylic on wood, 80cm x 60cm. December 2022
THIS IS. THIS IS X
Marcel Duchamp said: » It is the viewer who does the work ». About my previous work « Ceci est une balle », a viewer-artist-friend asked me if it was a fire ball…finding me very subtle, I answered: « You cooled… » which is a reference to a French game in which you burn when you find the good answer… But there’s no wrong or right answer in front of a work… On one hand, there’s what I put in my works, more or less consciously, and what I understand of it in retrospect… Those moments are always good opportunities to stand out old expressions like OhMyGod!!! Wow!!! or ICan’tBelieve!!! On the other hand, the meaning, even at lights years, belongs to the viewer. There’s multiplicity of meanings like there’s multiplicity of viewers. The worst is when the viewer desperately searches an answer to what she or he’s supposed to feel, in the cartel or in a detailed analysis. In that case, the viewer misses it. THIS IS. THIS IS X, Acrylic on wood, 81cm x 40,5cm. November 2022
Ceci est une balle
René Magritte, in his Artwork « La Trahison des Images » (The Treachery of Images), by painting in a realistic way, a pipe and adding « Ceci n’est pas une pipe » (This is not a pipe) on the canvas, highlighted the fact that the pipe painted is only a representation of the object, the pipe…not the pipe itself… You can also imagine that a ball could be figured by a ball (a little bit expected, isn’t it?), or a circle (without the third dimension, we almost navigate in a complete abstraction), or something totally different like an abstract funny band…why not? The opposition often made between abstractive art and figurative art is a nonsense, a short view in a way…all art is an abstraction of the thought that takes shape on the canvas or any other medium… If the image is a « treachery », words, glued on works like labels, names… »this is this »… »this makes me think of John X who painted like Y », analyses, brilliant or not, reduce works, even freeze emotions…Art is beyond words. Ceci est une balle, Acrylic on wood, 81cm x 40,5cm.October 2022
Impromptu Fiasco
Friendship always has a part of love. Oddly, the converse is not necessary true. Loyalty, respect are essential to any relationship but, here again, when love is eternal, in case of breakup, these qualities are no longer required. What a paradox, isn’t it? Maybe the eternity we are talking about here is only valid for the present moment. I would like to specify that the idea of the racket only came to me at the end of the process. Impromptu Fiasco, Acrylic on wood, 81cm x 40,7cm. October 2022
I Will Stand With My Art
Life is a kind of enigma. And yet, we must, at every moment, write our futur without knowing, of course, if the decisions we make are the right ones. This work was so difficult to achieve. But in the end, what I see is whatever the soundness of the decisions that I have taken, I will stand with my art. I Will Stand With My Art, Acrylic on wood, 81cm x 40,5cm. September 2022
Never Without My Scooter or Never Give up!
How I struggled with this work is an understatement! And summer which, paradoxically passes quickly, is a low time during which I seem frozen in efficiency. Having done half of what I have to do Thursday, September 1, is a dream becoming reality, I am afraid. In an ancient psychoanalysis, I discovered that cars, trains, even boats represent my life that I drive with more or less skills. Apparently this summer, I am an expert in scooter… Never Without My Scooter or Never Give Up!, Acrylic on wood, 81cm x 40,5cm. August 2022
The Words Come Later
Once again, and it’s my process of creation, I had no intention at all in the work. I was just following my intuition… some floating thoughts running through me that I always follow even if it means getting lost on the way with all the despair carried away. Then, I have no other choice but to resolve the dissatisfactions my wanderings have brought… In 6 words… cleaning and keeping only the essential. The words come later. It has already happened that I regret them. Anyway, they should never be taken for what they are not… an analysis of my own work. Saying that, if, like on a neighborhood plan « you are here », you’re not lost and I thank you for taking the time to read my words. The words Come Later, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm. July 2022
Je t’adore, dit-il
If you’re looking for, you will find the words « je t’adore » (I adore you) carved in the marble of this work. Je t’adore, dit-il, Acrylic on wood, 80cm x 60cm. July 2022
Even Crowded, she prefers skateboarding
Aware that solitude is necessary to be able to create , the artist prefers crowded skateboarding to public transport… But the weight of solitude is too heavy to carry sometimes. Hopefully, lack encourages creation…And she gets back to give birth of Art again. Even Crowded, she prefers skateboarding, 120cm x 60cm, Acrylic on wood. June 2022
Procrastinating Shadow
Between the wind and the rain, my shadow has not ceased to procrastinate. Procrastinating Shadow, 120cm x 60cm, Acrylic on wood. June 2022
Wabi-sabi
Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic concept from Japan. It doesn’t like perfection nor symmetry deadly boring. Wabi-sabi advocates simplicity keeping only the essential and gets rid of the frills. Wabi-sabi doesn’t hide accidents or tracing of time passing by. On the contrary, wabi-sabi reveals their beauty. Wabi-sabi, Acrylic on wood, 60cm x 40cm. June 2022
Ombres Portées
We all care more or less about what we are wearing rarely about our shadow, aren’t we? No one, unless in a confused state of mind, would think of it. In this work, I have explored the extent of shadows under a blazing sun. Ombres portées, Acrylic on wood, 60cm x 40cm. May 2022
NEVER GIVE UP or The Three Graces and A Half
Life is really tough sometimes but don’t be overwhelmed by despair. Imagine a four leaf-clover…visualize its color, its outlines. In repeating this everyday, luck maybe should smile at you at the end of the road… Be strategic…keep greeting your ex-baker even if your diet became gluten free just in case you change your mind. This is one of the million exemples of winning strategy you could adopt for much success. In short, put all the chances on your side but above all, if there’s one to remember…NEVER GIVE UP!!! NEVER GIVE UP or The Three Graces and a Half, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm. May 2022
The Three Graces or The Waiting Line
If the direction of the waiting line escapes you, ask The Three Graces. They won’t hesitate to make room for you. The Three Graces or The Waiting Line, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm. April 2022
Artists don’t care about catchy taglines
An artist doesn’t create to please nor to make pretty. An artist creates because there’s no other choice. it’s only like that…it’s by necessity without calculation. Otherwise, the result risks to be nice and comforting like a well-orderer shopping list. Yet once the work is exhibited, each comment or lack of comment is received like the arrow of an Angel in the heart or the murderous one of a hunter…in the heart too. Why? Because what gives to see in her works an artist is her inner garden. Artists don’t care about catchy taglines, Acrylic on wood, 60cm x 80cm. April 2022
Tragedies go away. Memory loss remains
There’s a French expression that says : »Man is a wolf to man ». But I don’t think that wolfs are as capable of hatred and stupidity against their own community than human beings. Violence doesn’t evaporate. It remains crouched ready to pounce even though we thought it was forgotten. And the funny thing is that it is transmitted like a trap parcel. Tragedies go away. Memory loss remains, Acrylic and spray on wood, 2(40cm x 60cm). April 2022
(Hi)story
Story and history have two meanings. But un French, it’s the same word. (Hi)story inrupts against the little stories. And the little stories untangled with (hi)story. STOP WAR. GIVE PEACE A CHANCE. (Hi)story, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm and 80cm x 60cm. March 2022
J’ai tout oublié mais je ne regrette rien II
I have forgotten everything I have forgotten everything but I have forgotten everything I regret nothing I have forgotten everything I have forgotten everything but I regret nothing. J’ai tout oublié mais je ne regrette rien, Acrylic on panels and Indian ink on cotton, 183cm x 80cm. February 2022
Crocodile tears
Each element, each pattern, in the least of its characteristics, has a deep meaning without, at any time, I didn’t have the will. My hand, at the service of my brain, floats between my subconscious and impulsive thoughts without words in a sea of deep concentration. The real meaning appears just after the last brushstroke and is always, beyond beauty, incredibly true.Crocodile tears, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 40cm. February 2022
Stay Focused
I am who I want to be. This thought guides me since my childhood. But it happens that sometimes faith in life, confidence missed. A phrase from Bruno Bettelheim, a French psychoanalyst, who was locked up in a concentration camp during the World War II, has had a powerful effect on me… at people who wanted to commit suicide, he said : »Don’t do that. You don’t know the end ». Stay focused, Acrylic on panel of wood, 100cm x 167cm. January 2022
The Beauty Myth
I always have had an accurate consciousness of the injustice made to women. The injustice to be constantly reduced to our physical. Since my childhood, I often said that the first function of a woman was to be beautiful. And from my memory, nobody never answered nor objected anything. There was a blank and the conversion went on. When I grown up, I measured the extent of the damage and it was a shock. Women were (and always are) seen as objects…reduced at one characteristic (like in racism). All over the world, hidden or overexposed, women are sexualized. And nobody can really escapes. Naomi Wolf in The Beauty Myth explains that even women over graduated are more or less obsessed by their physical…And that let time to men to occupy the economic terrain. I dedicate this painting to Catherine Leroy, an extraordinary photographer of war. She won the George-Polk Price and the Robert Capa Gold Medal. And because of her fantastic talent, her fellow journalists did everything to make her lose her accreditation during the war in Vietnam and continue to work. At a friend, before dying prematurely of a cancer, forgotten and without money, she said : « Don’t be sad, I climbed the mountain in Vietnam ». The Beauty Myth, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 60cm. January 2022
Boats have the same holes
I originally made this one, 5 years ago. I retouched it not long ago…ok, yesterday. I was (it’s also the case) moved by what I was reading in the newspaper…all these people fleeing war, whichever war it was. In fact, it was unbearable. I wondered what can I do for them. And that’s how I became volunteer in an organization which teaching French. I also made this painting which isn’t any help for them but a need for me. I recovered an old cupboard door with an embossed wallpaper on it. I found it interesting because that kind of wallpaper represents what they had lost…the known of an old home. The funny thing, if you have a lot of humor, is that in 5 years nothing has really changed. Boat have the same holes. governments have their same own interests and people continue to die. Boats Have The Same Holes, Acrylic on embossed wallpaper. January 2022
La Valise Rouge
When I was a tiny little child, I never left a little red suitcase. Then, my real daddy had invented a short song in case I was lost. -Whose the red suitcase is ? (3X) – It is Djénina’s! – Djénina surname ? – Hagenburger – She living where ? – 20, rue de Chambéry. Catchy, isn’t it ? This last November, 25th, 27 migrants drowned in the Channel sea. Men, women, mothers, fathers, tiny children for who it won’t be necessary to invent any song in case they’re lost. La Valise Rouge, Acrylic on curtains, 280cm x 190cm. January 2022
Faites L’amour, not war
The color perception of the skin in different categories, as white, black, yellow or even red, is a pure social construction. Humanity has only one color with different tones. It is how I am perceived that makes me white or black or yellow. This question bothered me a lot in the development of this work. I couldn’t decide which color for the skin…and finally, I opted for a sort of mix in the Djénina way… I am French with multiple roots…Algerian and Turkish, German and French and I still can’t even figure out which color has my skin. Faites l’amour, not war, Acrylic and Indian ink on cotton curtains, 226cm x 87cm. December 2021
Il est interdire d’interdire
It is forbidden to forbid is an aphorism from the French humorist Jean Yanne. Great, absurd and unsolvable aphorism used during the events of may 68 in France where the bourgeois and suffocating society was jostled and deeply questioned by workers, women and students. It was brief and violent and everybody can say there was a before and an after may 68. My father, who I saw on holidays, loved the 70’s far beyond the 70’s. And for a little Parisian girl, his home was like the heaven. One summer, he asked me at every meal what I’d like to eat and invariably, I answered « peas and carrots ». Well, we ate peas and carrots 3 times per day during 3 weeks. I had a big place to play in and once, me and my local mates had the luminous idea to redecorate it with taste and decided to steal all the plastic flowers available in the cemetery. The place was overcrowded with hideous plastic flowers and some friendly bees. But for an unknown reason, my father who saw it one million times didn’t seem to notice. I have to say that when I wrote « il est interdit d’interdire »(it is forbidden to forbid), I felt the same. I felt that I was 6 but in a bourgeois and a little bit suffocating society. Il est interdit d’interdire, Acrylic on wood, 120cm x 154cm. December 2021
Faites l’amour pas la guerre
I don’t do politics but yet, everything is political. In France, some ideas of hate, rejection of the other already won. And what seemed impossible is today part of the equation. I have the feeling of being in front of a horse race in which the horses are at full speed. And it doesn’t matter or almost who will be the winner. The damage is done. The scapegoats are finger pointed. It gives birth to an intangible fear in me. So I find myself dreaming of that may 68 old slogan : « Make Love Not War ». Faites l’amour pas la guerre, Acrylic on wood, 123cm x 170cm. November 2021
J’ai tout oublié mais je ne regrette rien
Sensitive souls can go their way. The story I am going to tell cannot be heard by everyone. But it is part of my life and of a lot of women’s lives. Everything has escaped me in this painting. While painting, I realized what I was painting…me, me in dramatic circumstances…all broken, a dislocated shoulder, my arms and legs hidden by bandages because of a man who, during several days of beating me under the eyes of my 3 years old son, left me unconscious during 24 hours before calling a doctor. From that, I have no memory. I am amnesic of one week of my life. Just a few flashes remains. The only thing I remember is my body so covered with bruises that it was difficult to imagine what my skin looked like. And that letter that looked more as a shopping list and basically said : »cases closed without follow-up ». I remember the death of Marie Trintignant, the great French actress beaten to death by the singer Bertrand Cantat and the guilt I felt. I remember the flight with my son and the hotels that followed. I remember the moment when I said to myself : »I am dead now. I am only the mother of my son ». And then, I remember the man who saved me by his love. Someone said that my eyes extinguished lighted again. Those events happened a very long time ago and a lot of things happened since. I just bring my testimony to the world because I can. J’ai tout oublié mais je ne regrette rien, Acrylic on wood, 100cm x 140cm. November 2021
I A PUNK
Our world is falling appart under our eyes, some crying more than others. Women have to be beautiful according to violent misogynistic standards.Boys aren’t allowed to cry. This world is full of racism, rejection of the other. Misogyny and the destruction of Mother Nature are both sides of the same coin. Let the non conventional in ! Let be us and stop the massacre ! I A PUNK, Acrylic on wooden cupboard and cardboard, 51cm x 52,5cm. November 2021
My Best Self-Portrait
At the beginning of my practice of painting, I used to share a big studio in Paris with a lot of artists. The « 100 », rue de Charenton was a great place. There was a lot of people who, regularly, asked me more or less the same question : « Is it a self-portrait? ». Once, I was painting a bathtub, my neighbor artist, for the joke, asked me if it was a self-portrait. After a short moment of deep reflection, I had to admit that yes, effectively it was… All that to say that, as creators, we always talk about us in our creations even if we portray a cactus. It’s how we make it that says a lot…about us. My Best Self-Portrait, Acrylic on wooden screen, 163cm x 163cm. November 2021.
Work in Progress
I wanted to do the portrait of Marilyn Monroe to show that there’s no need to wear a uniform to be. It’s missed for Marilyn, I mean…she was too blue. I was too disappointed. I cut out Marilyn. But I kept one of the other uniform our world produces, the suit and tie. I added the words « work in progress » faintly cut because uniform or not, we are always in progress. Work In Progress, Acrylic on cardboard, 63cm x 54cm. October 2021.
Punk’s not dead
I thank Domingo Laya for his proposal to mutually interpret one of our works. This is the one I made. I noticed after the final touch that there’s a little bit of my kitten who is a tiny punk people whom I adore like that. Punk’s Not Dead, Acrylic on canvas, 80cm x 80cm. October 2021.
Nothing is lost. Everything is transformed.
Nothing is lost. Everything is transformed. This one is included in a series that talks about my past of Flamenco dancer. The need, full of emotions so intense, arose and I did what I have always done in my creations…listen. That said, I am not at all nostalgic. The only interest in the past, in my view, is what I do with it. Nothing is lost. Everything is transformed, Acrylic on planks of wood, 3(30cm x 120cm). October 2021.
On scene at 10
The most important thing in Flamenco is the rhythm. There are like sentences of 12 times each divided differently according to styles. For exemple, the Alegría accentuates the times 3/6/8 and 10. The Bulería accentuates the times 3/7/8 and 10…10 being the time where everything ends..I made this work from a photo of me taken when I was on scene.I can’t tell when this photo has been taken but I can say that we, musicians and dancers, were all at 10. On scene at 10, Double sided door of 1m70 x 78cm with key, acrylic and spray on wood. September 2021.
God whispers
The period when I was a Flamenco dancer was the most intense of my life. I only worked, repeated all the day long, day after day…and the rest of the time, I anesthetized my hurting body with cold sport spray. But when I danced, there were like God whispering in my ears. God whispers, Acrylic on planks of wood, 200cm x 142cm. September 2021.
The lost and found Hand
My unconscious has repaired an injustice in this painting. A photographer took a picture of me dancing but unfortunately, he cut my hand ! The funny thing is that I made this painting like a puzzle, piece after piece not assembled until the end. And I realized at the very end of the process, that from the beginning but without being conscious of it, I had corrected the missing hand by adding one piece at the place where my hand was missing… out of the frame. The Lost and Found Hand, Acrylic on canvas, 150cm x 100cm + 50cm x 50cm. June 2021.
Here and Now
One of the many things you understand when you began studying the dance of Flamenco is that you must have an extreme consciousness of yourself from head to toe, to keep only the essential and gate away from what interferes. And in the same time, you must be truly aware of what’s going on outside with the music. The only way to succeed is to be here and now. Then, you’re perfectly aligned and the energy runs through you. Here and Now, Acrylic on canvas, 80cm x 80cm. June 2021
The Best Way to catch a Star
One year, I gave some lessons of Sevillanas at children and there was a young boy a little reluctant who behaved like a tough guy and everybody knows that a tough guy never dance. In the aim of helping him to see things in a different way, I said to him : « we dance as we are in our mind. If you’re tall, you’ll dance tall. And vice versa ». In a split second, he danced tall. On top of that, at the end of year show, he encouraged his comrades dancers by his jaleos. The tough guy was became a tall little boy. The Best Way to catch a Star, Acrylic on canvas, 5(25cm x 25cm). June 2021.
Like a little ball
As if she had a little ball in her hands that she was passing from one finger to another. Like a little ball, Acrylic on canvas, 3(50cm x 50cm). May 2021
Todo es de Color
Being Flamenco dancer was certainly one of the most important thing in my life. Flamenco is a way of being that made echo in me. It’s absolute. The required level is so high that you just have to work hard and hard. Everybody is co dependent. It’s pure essence of life. Todo es de Color, Acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 100cm. May 2021.
Copyright © 2023 Djénina Hagenburger. Tous droits réservés.
Djénina Hagenburger 