Katie Armstrong

"This is my Grandma.

Whenever Grandma combs my hair, she says I look like a princess.

At Grandma's you're allowed as many gummy bears as you want.

Grandma has a garden full of roses, and we like to smell them together.

Mmmm, they smell amazing!

At Grandma's I have my very own little watering can.

And bedsheets with cats on them.

Because Grandma and I, we really love cats!

One day, Grandma's hair got sick. (...)"

—Excerpt from the book text by Astrid Hamm

The current exhibition by Katie Armstrong at the Eigen + Art Lab combines illustration, textile, and video works.

The focus is on the drawings from her first artistic children’s book Grandma's Hair Is Sick. Similarly to the video work I thought of Frida Kahlo (2013), motivated by a poem of a train passenger who is describing a brief encounter, these new drawings were developed on the basis of a narrative. Interlinked through personal experiences of the author and the artist Katie Armstrong, Grandma's hair Is Sick is about grief and hope. Thus the story, written by Astrid Hamm from a child’s point of view and lovingly illustrated by New York artist Katie Armstrong, becomes a book for everybody who has had to face last goodbyes in life.

Additionally, a series of images painted on silk and a video work will be presented, produced shortly after the finalization of the book. Therefore, the visitors of the exhibition can immerge themselves into the pictorial world of the artist.

"I'm all about bringing this world into a more physical form, creating an environment, working with transparency, layers and editing techniques. These are things I've worked with in my animations for years. There's something about that interplay, the experience of seeing something that goes beyond the original image. For me, it's a reference to the fact that every experience we have is layered on top of our memories. It's a collection of fragments. A kind of forest of snapshots that you can walk through creating an immersive experience."

—Katie Armstrong