EXILE is pleased to present an exhibition dedicated to the work of German artist Sine Hansen (1942–2009). Hansen’s third solo presentation at EXILE brings together paintings and archival materials related to the egg motif, a form the artist investigated across both pictorial and object-based works from the mid-1960s until the early 1970s. While all objects are currently considered lost, the exhibition features a rediscovered 1965 painting of the motif, formerly in the collection of Wolfgang Hahn. Further, the exhibition includes paintings from the later phase of the Spannungszangen series (1974–1978), several of which are being presented publicly for the first time.
Psychedelic rotation is the first thing that pops into my mind when looking at Sine Hansen’s four paintings displayed on the ground floor. The circular disc (Scheibenkreis, 1976), the toothed wheel (Zahnrad III, 1975) and the plumber wrench (Rohrzangenspannung, 1975) transmit rotational motion. The hook (Hakenspannung, 1976) lifts a circular disc too, and appears to be held in place by yet another. In my motional imaginary, however, the hook conforms less to the vertical direction of lifting, but suggests a spinning around either of the pink, exquisitely flat circles or washers it purports to lift or be lifted by. Hansen’s technique of perfectly uniform paint and expertly placed contour lines fixes all circular motions into stillness, yet her choice of virulently vibrant colors makes movement tangible for my kinesthetic senses. The hard metal of the depicted tools liquifies into a radiant flow. At the same time, the melted surface remains strictly confined within the sharp edges of hook, disc, wrench, and gear.
In Hansen’s mind, these colorful motions were not psychedelic at all, but grounded in scientific vision. She based her Spannungzangen series on visualizations of photoelasticity, a mapping of tension and force applied onto objects. Her interlocking tools thus take up the physics of prosaic relations between objects, yet the paintings make the interactions feel alive, powerful and suggestive, though it is hard to pin down what exactly is suggested. The alligator wrench tightly circludes¹ a piece of metal, somewhat phallic but tiny compared to the grip it finds itself in. Touching points between tools emanate waves of energy that oscillate between physical tension and luminous excitement.
The prismatic eggs shown on the first floor are another case in point. Eggs are threatened by pliers and outfitted with winders. Would winding up an egg break it open or make it spin? Wind-up eggs – Schlüsseleier – are among the subjects that appear most frequently in Hansen’s paintings, and they are also the motif of her only sculptural works, the single, larger Himmlisches Rosa and the smaller, green Prismenei mit Schlüssel, planned as an edition of 30. She takes care not make them openly legible as symbols of fertility. Like tools and tension, eggs are functionally fields of color – not only in the plane but also in the round. Monochromatic flat winders attach to gradient ovoids as if to establish that plasticity is a function of color. All of the sculptures, however, are lost and cannot be walked around to prove this point. If still in existence, they would have transferred circular movement from object to viewer. Rotation, then, psychedelic or not, can be enacted in the mind, following Hansen’s imaginary impulse to twist and spin.
1„Circlusion“ is a neologism coined by Bini Adamcak as an equivalent to „penetration.“ The term highlights the active function of the orifices penetrated in sexual acts.
Barbara Reisinger
→Sine Hansen, Kunstverein Braunschweig (June 26 – Oct 5, 2025)
