Sebastian Hänel

Art for me is a state of being, a space of attention, an opportunity to reflect, and a capsule to experience the present. It is not something I produce with fixed intention, but something I meet through the process. My work does not begin with answers but with questions: How can I connect more truthfully with myself, with others, with the world? How can I create space for what cannot be described in words but wants to emerge?

As a multidisciplinary artist, I work across drawing, performance, cyanotype, printmaking, and bookbinding. Each medium opens a different pathway to perception. My drawing process is slow and meditative, grounded in repetition and spontaneity. In my performances, I create singular, embodied experiences that draw on the ephemeral nature of the form—each one shaped by the moment, the body, and a guiding concept. Cyanotypes allow me to work with light, layering, and time—capturing a single gesture or trace of energy. These varied forms are united by the same core inquiry: a search for clarity through being, a practice of presence through making.

My work revolves around the tension and balance between control and release, body/material limitation, structure, and flow. I intentionally navigate between contrasts to question our shared human experience. Rather than constructing finished images or narratives, I engage with the unknown. I trust the body, the materials, and the motion itself to guide the process. This is how I stay close to something real, something alive. As my work unfolds, I see myself participating in an evolving dialogue.

For me, art is not political in the conventional sense. It is deeply personal and, in that, spiritual. I work from the belief that every honest moment of connection between people, between body and space, between attention and intuition is an act of resistance. We live in a world that too often values speed, productivity, and certainty over depth, reflection, and ambiguity. Through my work, I want to offer viewers a moment of recognition, a shift in perception, and a reminder of the multifaceted nature of our being.

At its core, my practice is an ongoing attempt to dissolve distance between the self and the other, between form and feeling, and between thought and sensation. If my work can create even a brief opening for someone to feel more present, more human, more free, then it has done what it was meant to do.