Visual survey of Everydayness
Abstract
Jiřina Hankeová (* 1948) was born in Kladno. She has a wide range in her work, from drawing and painting, to poetry and lyrics, to photography. She took up photography during her secondary school studies, but eventually she found her creative expression mainly in drawing and painting. She already started to exhibit her paintings and drawings in the ’70s. In the ’80s, she was strongly influenced by her friendship with the Trasa group, especially by the work of Olbram Zoubek and Válová sisters. In the ’90s, her activity expanded to lyrics that she wrote for her daughter Lucie’s music. She published several books of poetry: What to Do with It?, Chlorophyll People, Acrylic Poetry, Other Views and Leaving the City Behind One’s Back. At the turn of the century, she returned to photography again without leaving her previous creative activities. She has exhibited her photographs at more than 40 solo exhibitions both in the Czech Republic and abroad. She called her first photo series in which she plays with lights and shadows “It Started Quite Innocently” (2004) with the subtitle “Light & Shape”. One of her most significant photo series “An Awkward Attempt at Self-Therapy” (2005-2006) originated inside an intimate space. The photo series “Cyclic Landscapes” (2010-2012) which resonates with the optically vibrant softness of reality is in contrast to the trivial snippets of the urban environment in the photo series “Banalities” (since 2010). She fulfills her feelings and visions in extensive photo series of staged images, such as “Same as Different” (since 2015) where she uses her imagination to transform everyday objects, “Lost & Found” (since 2016) in which she tells stories of found things, or “A Little Morbid Images” (since 2018) where she designs constructions from animal fragments.
Key words
Jiřina Hankeová, contemporary Czech photography, conceptual photography, fine art photography, artistic photography, abstract photography, photo series, portrait, self-therapy, light – shape – color, staged photographs, staged images, landscapes, Michal Janata, Jana Ševčíková, Věra Jirousová, Richard Guryča, Malá galerie České spořitelny, Leica Gallery Prague
HANKEOVÁ, J.: Visual survey of Everydayness. In European Journal of Media, Art and Photography, 2020, Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 38-68, ISSN 1339-4940.