“I is another.” This sentence from Arthur Rimbaud epitomizes an expression of modern subjectivity. The photographs of Bettina Hoffmann depict an emotionally charged relationship with the self as other. In them, pairs or groups of women appear in mundane situations, yet at closer glance, it becomes apparent that the women in the photographs are identical. In Hoffmann’s trippy photographic universe, the singular “I” is multiplied and cinematically divided to equal the sum of private and public identity. The work conjures and complicates notions of twins, triplets and multiple offspring; her digitally manipulated photographs suggest the identity nightmare of cloning.
Documentation
Artist Bio
Bettina Hoffman
Bettina Hoffman grew up in West Berlin. She studied Fine Arts at the Hoochschule der Kunste Berlin, The Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and at the California Institute of the Arts. Hoffmann has taken part in residency programmes in Istanbul and Weimer, and currently lives and works in Montreal and Berlin.
Featured in YYZINE: VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2
Photo credit: Peter MacCallum