The motif of the fortress runs through Frank Jimin Hopp’s solo exhibition CASTLES MADE OF SAND – sometimes colorful and overloaded, sometimes high in the clouds, resembling a castle in the air, sometimes burning brightly. Even if Hopp’s works appear cheerful and bright at first glance, a closer look reveals an unexpected bitter aftertaste. The fortresses, which at first, seem so unshakeable in their foundations, become a symbol, that seems to quickly remind visitors that the world is falling apart, bit by bit every day, as banal as it may sound. The protagonists, who see themselves at the mercy of this doomed world, often appear desperate, powerless or incapable of sympathy. The fortresses made of clay are therefore not only to be understood literally as CASTLES MADE OF SAND, but also as a metaphor for the disintegration of what we take for granted as immovable. 

Hopp’s artistic style is reminiscent of the literary oxymoron, which comes from the Greek and means ‘astute nonsense’. At first, the visitor is quickly drawn in and enthralled by a lot of color, the reception of well-known pop and everyday culture and a very charming and witty drama. Hopp effortlessly combines references to art history and pop culture elements (such as Tolkien’s Ringwraiths and Picasso’s horses) with social issues, such as the future of a society threatened by a massive shift to the right, the nature of (a fortress) Europe, or an earth shaped by climate change. 

The threatening and violent reaches the observer before self-protection and numbness take hold. According to Aristotle, the visitor is offered a liberating catharsis; we can laugh and cry at the same time.

Text: Frank Jimin Hopp & Isabella Sedeka

Photo: Eric Tschernow