Life is better than fiction
Origin and Growth
Born in the Garden State, USA. Grown up as a tomboy with three brothers in a small village in southern Germany. Survived school and moved to the US. Lived in the Golden State and the Sunshine State. Learned to cook pretty well. Decided to study in Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts, Visual Communication). Graduated with an artistic field study on the life of dog owners in Berlin. Returned to California and worked in art, design, fashion and interior design. Made friends for life. Returned to Berlin. Stayed longer this time. Got an M.A. (Art in Context, Berlin University of the Arts), studied everyday female culture then and now, and became an expert in this field.
Kathrin Haller devotes herself to artistic fieldwork and visual storytelling.
Joy and Misery
»It's pretty simple: I explore people's lives, their everyday life with its duties, rituals, opportunities and challenges, joy and misery. I travel by public transportation and study my fellow passengers. We sit together on a train for a few moments - then we never see each other again. I look at the marks of living on their faces. I see afternoons on couches, curtains and houseplants, arguments and longing, hear the voices of children, feel family strife, the tingling anticipation of a lover, or the fear of another lonely evening. I move through the wrong parts of the city, where the corks are not popping all the time - here I feel existence.
I collect photo albums, scraps of words, facial expressions and instruction manuals of devices that are no longer usable. I love the bossy tones of housekeeping books, which are supposed to structure and simplify life, yet only show how imperfect we are. I find the motifs for my paintings in the photo albums of strangers, with their family events and trips to the countryside. You can discover the sensitivity of a soul in the way a handbag is held.«
Purpose
»I think I work against forgetting. Not as a conscious concern, I just suddenly realized it when I was standing in my studio, surrounded by photo albums, letters and schoolbooks of dead people I didn't even know. And yet they are familiar to me. I know where they sometimes traveled, how they decorated their Christmas tree, and when the living room was redecorated. Between the photos, the letters and the school essays, they speak to me. Sometimes loudly, but mostly quietly, they tell me about their good and bad experiences, about failures and passions and unfulfilled dreams. They tell me so that it will not be forgotten, and I capture it in my paintings. Meticulously I search for the moment that expresses it, the line where the emotion resonates. I work until I get it right and everyone is happy. «