The Post Apocalyptic Romance Comes to Electro Studios Project Space
KEITH RODWAY
Daniel Hartlaub is a filmmaker and visual artist specialising in fine-art comic-book design. His show The Post Apocalyptic Romance runs over the second May bank holiday, between Friday 26-Sunday 28 at Electro Studios Project Space in Seaside Road, St Leonards.
Daniel will be showing a selection of his work created over the last 20 years, including images from Rosalie – his homage to Rosemarie Nitribitt, a high-class call-girl who was murdered in mysterious circumstances, and who became a cause célèbre in Daniel’s native country, Germany. Through Rosalie, envisaged as both a comic book and computer game, Daniel imagines another life for Rosemarie in the domains of postmodern digital-age culture.
Daniel’s distinctive visual style comes from working initially with charcoal. In a conversation with Daniel for International Times (internationaltimes.it/daniel-hartlaub-is-a-visual-artist) Daniel said of his work: “I became unhappy with the limitation of creating grey shadings while working with black pastel or chalk on paper. So I tried working with charcoal and started to completely blacken-out the whole paper.
“I then used different types of erasers to take away the black and thus create the content of the picture: objects, people, space and light. Using this technique did in fact give me much more control over lines and shadings.
“Drawing on black means there is at first nothing, or only darkness. It’s like the sun hasn’t come up yet or the light switch is turned off. So when I draw, it sometimes feels like I am switching the light on in order to make the scene I want to depict visible, or make things come alive.
“To my amazement this technique also works drawing digitally, rendering the same charcoal feel to the print outs or to its ‘digital version’ on a monitor. When I print them out I usually use fleece wallpaper or aluminium.
“I also draw comics/graphic novels. Having finished a sci-fi comic book (2048 – When It All Began) a couple of years ago I am currently working on another one, the super-heroine comic book Rosalie. The main characters of the comic are impersonated by real life actors who come to my studio, where I draw them.’
The Post Apocalyptic Romance was originally envisaged as a present-day art movement with Daniel’s friend Jesko Barabas, following a visit to a decommissioned nuclear power plant. Sadly, Jesko died last year.
On sale at Electro Studios will be limited-edition runs of a lathe-cut vinyl LP consisting of music recorded for Daniel’s shows over the years by German experimental and electronic composer Jan Peter Schwalm, plus a single Nobody Knows Who I Am by Necessary Animals, written for the soundtrack of the Rosalie computer game. Peter Schwalm has worked with many of Germany’s foremost electronic musicians, and later this year sees the release of an album recorded live in 1995 with Brian Eno and Holger Czukay of celebrated German avant-rock band Can. These releases will be exclusive to the show.
The Post Apocalyptic Romance opens on Friday May 26 between 18.00-21.00. All welcome. On Saturday 27 there will be a free music event featuring Simon and the Pope, Necessary Animals and Anthony Moore, between 19.00-21.00.
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