Holly Halkes

Exhibition texts

Instal Shot of Until Everything’s Forgotten at Better Go South, Berlin

Until Everything’s Forgotten, 2024 at Better Go South

Text by Vanessa Murrell

"In dark times

Will there also be singing?

Yes, there will also be singing About the dark times."

      -      Bertold Brecht, from ‘Svendborg Gedichte’ (1939)

The solo exhibition Until Everything’s Forgotten marks the culmination of British artist Holly Halkes' two-month residency at BETTER GO SOUTH. It presents seven new paintings that traverse seasons from winter to spring while confronting existential themes of life, death, and rebirth. Derived from Noughties song lyrics, the title of the show and of each work serve as triggers for addressing grief and evoking nostalgia, collectively forming an album of visual narratives. In a dialogue between the past, the present, and the future, Until Everything’s Forgotten suggests that memories never truly fade.

With a focus on remembrance, the exhibition offers a love letter to loss and reconciliation towards renewal. Drawing upon Katherine May’s book "Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times," the show confronts the challenges of winter, both literally and metaphorically, embodying transformation amidst adversity. Halkes' painting process is like method acting, living through emotional depths portrayed on canvas, yet imbued with hope and humour. Drawing from the playful and curious spirit of Pieter Bruegel, the paintings reflect a sense of child's play.

The exhibition's narrative unfolds with Everything That Dies Makes Its Way Back, serving as the cornerstone, providing a glimpse into the whole exhibition. This uncanny environment encourages a cycle of regeneration and decay, conducive to transformation. Moving inside, Out Of The Dark Season introduces themes of transcendence and liberation, yet ironically, subsequent works lean deeper into winter rather than away from it. The artist mentions, "I am drawn to the absurd. Something a little offbeat," and this predilection distinctly manifests in the balancing of uplift and melancholy as well as anxiety and contemplation from work to work.

One of the exhibition's substantial artworks, A Small Violin Moment, falling thistles act as tears against a pink backdrop of love, with solid tree trunks nodding to nature's resilience in the face of winter’s chill. This resilience contrasts with the deceptive tranquillity of Some Winters Happen In The Sun, where decay and temptation lurk beneath the surface of apparent serenity. Lean Into it presents an enigmatic and awkward figure seemingly leaning into itself, evoking anxiety and imbalance. It's leaning into Shadows of the Past, which reflects on togetherness amidst absence. Checkmate delves into the underworld’s duality and offers a surreal portrayal of liminal space. Remnants of a previous painting emerge, bridging the present with the past and completing the loop of regeneration and transformation.

Throughout Halkes' works, there is an interplay of light and darkness influenced by Berlin's historical and architectural landscape. While the city's weighty history and stark architecture have moulded her paintings, the abundance of colour and whimsical imagery lend them a feeling of lightness and levity. Throughout the exhibition, Halkes navigates the dualities of human existence, inviting audiences to consider inner and outer worlds, familiarity and unfamiliarity, order and chaos. Her paintings underscore the imperative of understanding our own nature to understand all that is around us. Until Everything’s Forgotten meditates on the human spirit in the face of loss.

All The Things You Said Running Through My Head, 2023 at Albert Contemporary

Text by Oli Epp 

Holly Halkes is a vibrant force, reminiscent of an unhinged Nigella Lawson, creating culinary chaos on carnivalesque canvases, loaded with gusto. A gastronomic painter, she speaks to our early experiences in childhood as well as deep desires for reckless abandon. She hungrily spreads, scatters and smears paint onto canvas with an insatiable appetite that says something about who we are at the core in our culture of infinite consumption. 

Holly and I grew up together in the tennis town of Wimbledon. Our shared childhood experiences echo through Holly's paintings, imbued with a childlike navigation of the world, akin to the whimsy of dress-up play. The remnants of those times are unmistakable —strawberries, costume rings, cakes, and more. Halkes' style can be best described as a delightful fusion—a ménage à trois—  merging the whimsical figuration in Roald Dahl, the order of Wayne Thiebaud at Patisserie Valerie, and the chaotic aftermath of an explosion in Aldi's clearance rack. 

The exhibition derives its title from t.A.T.u.'s noughties anthem, employing the repetitive chorus to echo the rhythm and gurgle of the show. This title encapsulates the personal unconscious, the mental chatter, and the reverberation of thoughts being processed. I can imagine her listening to the song on repeat, just before hosting a dinner party for friends: whipping up canapes and guacamole in her cadmium orange kitchen in Camden Town. It sets the tone and aroma for the exhibition – the artist’s state of mind amidst the frenzy of making.  

Halkes' paintings bridge the gap between gut and brain, infusing her elementary forms and primitive shapes with the delectability of de Kooning’s psychologically charged paintings. I yearn to suck, touch, bite, excrete, sniff, swallow, gurgle, and stroke the thick impasto paint. Halkes' visceral works delve into the depths of the human psyche, recalling the primal urges with which we first explore the world. Beneath the sickly-sweet surface lies a sobering narrative of the internal and external conflicts that we all experience: the challenges of self-identity and finding our place in the world.  

 The frenetic movement captured in a Neverlandish food fight unfolds in a greasy, hectic spectacle: a Quattro-Fromaggi carwash that's more salty than sweet. These paintings exude a dark British humour, as if Cornelia Parker detonated a Pizza Hut instead of her famed garden shed. They’re manic. They’re drunk. 

The titles of Halkes' works resonate with the late 20-somethings, embodying throwaway comments suffused with "well-being" rhetoric, such as "Feeling Overwhelmed Lately" and "We Need Better Boundaries." The depicted figures play on nostalgic illustrations, reminiscent of the exaggeration in Quentin Blake’s characters with their whimsical appendages charging into the scenes. 

Halkes' canvases immerse us in themes of chaos, death, life, celebration, obsession, abundance, excess, and the grotesque. It's a liminal space, blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, euphoria and beauty. In this space, the human spirit is celebrated in all its sticky, complex glory, challenging conventions and embracing the essence of our existence. We are the narratives we consume; you are what you eat.