Husmann/Tschaeni

Citylights
Hosier Lane Australia
March 2 - June 30 2011

"We work backwards, so many sparkling stones don't like to be catched in the deep green-blue sea. We paint, draw and spray on perspex with enamel, oil, glitter, pearl powder, crayon, pencil and a lot more. They swim out of rage inside the jellybeans, and then in winter, sweets are so cold, no one likes to try them. 

We paint and draw in many layers until we can't see the first drawing anymore.
Only the snow stones feel connected, and they sink together, white and sweet, deep inside the earth.
We turn around the painting and see the front side."  

Husmann/Tschaeni. Lucerne 2010 Pascale Mira Tschäni & Michael Husmann Tschäni live in Switzerland and both studied at the College of Art in Lucerne. They received further education at the National Institute of Design, India and a residency in Berlin.  Since 2003, they have developed a unique collaborative style encompassing the worlds of painting, comics, illustration, installation, and recently, performance, and have exhibited from Mumbai to Melbourne.

Their current collaborations consist of both exquisite illustration works, in which they make use of their paintings and "left overs" of performances, like costumes and fabric sculptures. Both are displayed together to create an environment that is at the same time powerfully dominated by illustration and theatrical presence.

It was like two completely different, somewhat incompatible picture languages had collided when they started working together. But somehow they managed to create pictures, stories and installations together, without having to change their styles. 

In 2010, Husmann/Tschaeni were awarded The Swatch Young Illustrators Award at Illustrative11in Berlin, the world's most important prize for contemporary illustration and the leading international forum for contemporary illustration and graphic arts.