ALEXANDER HAHN

electronic media artist

— And I Build a Crooked Space


Madam Takes a Leap

Date: 2022

Dimension: 17 x  22 inch  

Technique: pigment ink on fine art paper  

Edition: 7 + 1 EA



I was recently granted generous access to a Matterport and Facebook AI research dataset of about 1000 3D spaces. To date, I created a few short computer animations and a folio in progress entitled «— and I Build a Crooked Space»., a nod to Robert A. Heinlein’s eponymous short story from 1941.

So far, all the houses I investigated are fully furnished, some tidy, some messy, littered with personal belongings, but I have yet to encounter a single human being. 

An uncanniness pervades the deserted homes, the cause of abandonment, their histories and locations unknown and ripe with fictional potential. Thoughts of «Morel’s Invention», the book by Adolfo Bioy Casares or «Locus Solus» by Raymond Russel.  

The almost cinematic atmosphere of suspense is heightened by the distorted geometry, reminiscent of cubist painting of the early 20th century in which central perspective with its single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes and  interlocking planes.

By prematurely aborting  the rendering, I end up with a photon map of the surfaces, which looks rather like an etching. Whereas conventional gravure depends on corrosives, I use light.The digital pictures are printed on paper or glass

— And I Build a Crooked Space


Man Takes a Fall

Date: 2022

Dimension: 17 x  22 inch  

Technique: pigment ink on fine art paper  

Edition: 7 + 1 EA


— And I Build a Crooked Space



Woman in a Houndstooth Suit Collapsed at the Bottom of the Stairs

Date: 2021 

Dimension: 13 x 19 inch  

Technique: pigment ink on fine art paper  

Edition: 7 + 1 EA


I consider stairs a place of transition, the ascent or descent bearing risk and vulnerability. In this image, we spot a woman in a houndstooth suit collapsed at the bottom of the stairs, raising the questions whether we're on a scene of crime or accident, whether we are witnesses or perpetrators. 

— And I Build a Crooked Space



Woman Running up the Stairs of a Deserted Hotel

Date: 2021 

Dimension: 13 x 19 inch  

Technique: pigment ink on fine art paper  

Edition: 7 + 1 EA


The scenario created with thoughts of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, the title of the series a nod to Robert A. Heinlein’s short story — And He Built a Crooked House from 1941, where an architect builds a house that brings into play the fourth dimension. 

— And I Build a Crooked Space



Person Falling Down the Stairs

Date: 2021 

Dimension: 13 x 19 inch  

Technique: pigment ink on fine art paper  

Edition: 7 + 1 EA


Again, we are witnessing a person struggling with a set of stairs, this time, in a take on Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, in the midst of a fall. Did the man or woman slip, was he or she pushed, or even shot from behind?

— And I Build a Crooked Space


Ditlev Thomsen’s Empire

Date: 2021 

Dimension: 17 x  22 inch  

Technique: pigment ink on fine art paper  

Edition: 7 + 1 EA