COPE Studio

Simone Haack (born 1978 in Rotenburg/Wümme, currently based in Berlin) explores the theme of hair as a marker of identity situated between nature and culture in her latest body of work. Her second publication with DCV accompanies two exhibitions: Untangling the Strands at the Berlin Collection of Plaster Casts of Classical Sculpture—where her hair-themed paintings engage in a dialogue with ancient sculptures—and Helix of Realism at Galerie Droste in Paris, which forms part of the official program of the major Surrealism exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, marking the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist Manifesto.

This book is the first to shed light on the surreal dimension in Haack’s work, revealing a vital source of her imagery: the dream journals she has kept since the age of 17, reflecting her ongoing interest in the unconscious. It is especially the logic of dreams, as well as emotional states and moods, that resonate through her painting.

Simone Haack: »My goal is to use realistic means to visualize the invisible. To enter a kind of automatism that allows the unconscious to speak, so the images develop a life of their own. To shine a light on the realm where myths originate.«