Exhibitions views from Intimacy/Privacy, Forum Stadtpark, Graz, 2022. 

Exhibition views from Afterglow, The Grand Chelsea, NYC, 2022.

Installation views from The Windows, MiART, Milano, 2024.

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Looking from outside into an open window one never sees as much as when one looks through a closed window. (…) What one can see out in the sunlight is always less interesting than what goes on behind a windowpane. In that black or luminous square life lives, life dreams, life suffers. (Charles Baudelaire, Windows/Les Fenêtres)

 

Windows as sites of imagination, windows as transparent boundaries, and passages between public and private - return as motifs in the works of Anaïs Horn. They show interior and exterior spaces and windows as borders and connections between these two spheres. Windows of private houses and flats stand for intimacy and security, while in the world outside the window, the urban living space is represented. The window frames the imagined existence of the stranger, but the pane of glass is also a transmitter between the "outside" and the "inside" life, allowing the two to merge, removing the distance between them and making the existence of one without the other impossible. Where are the boundaries of personal, private space? Where are these boundaries shifting to in times of social media and to what extent has the pandemic had an influence on these boundaries? In Horn's preoccupation with the window as a motif and its symbolism and narrative dimension, universal questions about distance and proximity oscillate between the self and the other and between life and art.

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The Windows, MiART 2024, Milano, Main sector solo presentation with MLZ ART DEP:​

For Anaïs Horn’s work complex, The Windows, premiering at Miart 2024, she once again delves into a recurring motif: the window. Symbolizing the liminal space between the private and public domains, windows become conduits of imagination, transparent thresholds bridging worlds. Drawing from drone footage, she captures glimpses on herself through the windows of her former New York 20th-floor apartment. These stills transferred onto transparent acrylic glass and juxtaposed with hand-painted silk curtains on aluminium curtain rods and aluminum (window) frames. Adorned with gemstone balls and tassels, reminiscent of traditional protective charms, they serve as guardians against external malevolence. Within the exhibition space, she constructs an immersive environment, integrating her own furniture designs, including a printed antique carpet, painted poufs, and lamps (all 2024). These pieces, accompanied by drawings from her The Windows series (2022), transform the booth into a domestic sanctuary. Through the interplay of windows, she distorts perspectives, evoking notions of voyeurism and surveillance. The juxtaposition of unconventional viewpoints and delicate textiles conveys a sense of solitude and vulnerability, echoing the urban melancholy of Edward Hopper‘s cityscapes. Yet, Horn’s work is dedicated to Josephine Hopper, an overlooked artist and wife of Edward. Self Portrait as Josephine (2022–2024) draws on elements from famous portraits of Josephine, aiming to evoke uncanny moments of déjà vu through their distortion. The Windows was initially conceived during her 2022 artist’s residency at ISCP in NYC, and developed between NYC, Paris and Rome, where the artist was a fellow with the Castro Projects Studio Program in spring 2024.

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Intimacy/Privacy: Les Fenêtres, 2022 (installation)

À Paris, le ciel me semble toujours plus proche (Quarantine Windows II), 2022, UV print on Wall GrafX, 100 × 150 each.

Love to Dream, 2021, graphite, oil sticks and oil on linen, in artist’s frame, 59 x 50 cm.

Inner Life, 2022, graphite, oil sticks and oil on linen, in artist’s frame, 59 x 50 cm.

Through the Unknown, we’ll find the New, 2022, graphite, oil sticks and oil on linen, in artist’s frame.

Exhibition views (c) Clara Wildberger

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Afterglow: 

Marigold, How to remember your dreams?, I like it when somebody gets excited about something, Schleppen & Räumen, all 2022, all pencil, color pencil, ink, watercolor, acrylic on paper, 11x8,5 in.

Draft for a Self Portrait as Josephine, 2022.  (c) Marc Tatti

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The Windows:

Self Portrait as Josephine I, 2022–2024, video still, UV printed on acrylic glass, painted silk curtains, artist’s aluminium frame and curtain rod, Fluorite, 192 x 186 cm. 

Self Portrait as Josephine II, 2022–2024, video still, UV printed on acrylic glass, painted silk curtains, artist’s aluminium frame and curtain rod, Blue Calcite, 192 x 186 cm. 

Self Portrait as Josephine III, 2022–2024, video still, UV printed on acrylic glass, painted silk curtains, artist’s aluminium frame and curtain rod, Ocean Jasper, 192 x 186 cm. 

Self Portrait as Josephine IV, 2022–2024, video still, UV printed on acrylic glass, painted silk curtains, artist’s aluminium frame and curtain rod, Green Moonstone, 192 x 186 cm. 

Drawings from “The Windows”, Marigold, How to remember your dreams?, I like it when somebody gets excited about something, Schleppen & Räumen, all 2022, all pencil, color pencil, ink, watercolor, acrylic on paper, in artist’s frame, 35,6 x 28 cm. 

Summer Interior, 2024,  UV Print on antique carpet, 195 x 120 cm.

xOxO (Blue), 2024, poof base, velvet fabric, cords, acrylic paint, antique embroidered letters, 

⌀ 45 x 40 cm. 

xOxO (75012), poof base, velvet fabric, cords, acrylic paint, antique embroidered letters, ⌀ 40 x 40 cm. 

Chess Lamp I, antique marble lamp stand, velvet lamp shade, acrylic paint, ca. 56 x 25 cm.

Chess Lamp II, antique marble lamp stand, velvet lamp shade, acrylic paint, ca. 36 x 20 cm.

(c) The Knack Studio

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