I spoke with photographer Koen Hauser about his latest series Skulptura, in which he took inspiration from old and new iconic works. Using the computer, Hauser reworks the famous sculptures and couture pieces into new images.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

This really differs, depending on phase of the project(s) I’m in. But I always spend time regularly wandering through old books, second hand shops and my personal archive of cut-out imagery. It gives me a lot of inspiration and also new angles to work from, and it is of great help in case of creative questions and challenges. Next to this the instruments I use for creating work whether is be digital or physical are an important part of my process, and I spend a lot of time fiddling with new software, or trying things with, for example clay and ceramics. 

Who or what are your sources of inspiration? How are they expressed in your work? 

I draw inspiration from old books and history in general, and historical photography in particular. As an armchair-traveller I got to know most of the world via the representation of photographs. The specific colors of history and its photographical and printing reproduction methods can be seen in my work. But also do these ‘old images’ that stand the test of time contain clichés, archetypes and symbols. In re-editing these I turn them into building blocks for my own post-modern visual story telling. 

You have studied social psychology. In what ways has this study influenced your work as an artist?

I studied and researched the processes of categorization and stereotyping. I think the idea of the stereotype, and the focus on the inner processes of the viewer on how he or she perceives the world are leading in the way my work is constructed and comes to life. 

Where does this fascination with editing iconic works come from?

Most iconic works I got to know in my childhood in browsing books and encyclopaedia, and later by collection old books and cut-out imagery. And iconic works in a way are similar to stereo- or archetypes. Because they are embedded so deeply in our culture, they are important factors in visual interpretation, and therefore shifting attention and meaning in work that I make anew. 

Tell me about your work process. How does a work come to life?

As with Skulptura, it started with my collection of images of sculptures. In the beginning a lot of conceptual questions arise. With Skulptura this had to do with the juxtaposition between photography and sculpture, where sculpture needs time and space to be experienced, where photography lacks these two. But, in the end these conceptual notions and questions become building blocks of a bigger thing. In cross-fertilazing visual elements and re-iterations of different technical procedures a ‘gestalt’ emerges, a project that has inner integrity but finds it’s power in thing that escape from being observed or defined directly. In this sense it has great analogy with alchemy. My process is a brewery of elements. 

The shrouded practices of antiquated alchemy still hold a palpable parallel to Skulptura, in which the modification of physical matter parallels metaphysical development of consciousness. 

What are you currently working on?

At the moment I’m working on sketches for an artwork in public space in my hometown Leiden. It is commissioned with the idea of making the LHBTI+ community more visible. In the sketching I’m playing with the different ‘stereotypes’ we have of masculinity and femininity, in order to transcend these and come to a more inclusive and fluid understanding of the ways our minds categorize gender. I’m very excited because unlike Skulptura in which sculpture was only shown in photographical representations, I now really enter the world of three dimensions. 

What is your most personal work?

When I was still in art academy, I’ve made a book about my little sister and how she looked at age 26. In reality she died as a baby of only a couple of month old. With my digital reconstruction of her appearance, using old photo’s of family members, I brought her back to life. I used technique as a means of magic. As a sorcerer’s apprentice I was taken into the world of photography by the then new digital possibilities and my emotional longing to bring to life what could not be seen and touched…

What work haven't you created yet?

As in science where there is this notion of the theory of everything, it seems that all my ideas seem to point or aim at a certain ‘work of art of everything’. Of course I realize this is impossible, but aiming and working towards this feels satifying, as if I get closer to the unraveling of the mystery of life itself. 

“I’m fascinated by the human and touchable quality of the masterpieces of Rodin.”