Harry Hachmeister

Cats are the most body-positive animals imaginable, says photographer, painter and sculptor Harry Hachmeister about the flat feline creatures that populate his work. Body image connects the cats to another constant in Hachmeister’s energetic, humourful and sensitive universe: the kettlebells. Counter-balancing the corporate seriousness of the gym, the weights point to transformation and the numerous reasons people want to change their appearance, while increasingly taking on anthropomorphic traits themselves. Hachmeister, who loves the physicality of clay, was in a happy place at EKWC. He learned to make his own glazes and allowed the natural colour of the clay to surface as well. Inspired by a research trip to California that also took him to Joshua Tree, he explored new forms to express intimacy, found, oddly enough, in cactuses and rocks. In the meantime, even the dreamy cats seem to turn into painterly landscapes.