MATCHBOOKS

Monika Hauck
Digital Prints
Various Dimensions
2012-2024

Available Sizes:
FRAMED - 50cm x 50cm - 150e
FRAMED - 30cm x 30cm - 75e
UNFRAMED - 30cm x 30cm - 30e
UNFRAMED - A2 Poster - 50e

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INFO

This series of matchbooks belonged to the last companion of my Babcia, (that's Polish for 'Grandmother'). His name was Zigmus and he played the accordion for her. I photographed his collection as a conceptual portrait after my family managed his estate. I only met him once or twice but here he is somehow. Somehow he entered our lives, left a meaningful impact and then I got to know him only through his vast possessions.

Looking at them individually speaks to a specific moment in advertising, print media and illustration. But they also function as like pinpoints on a map, showing where he might have travelled, sometimes he even noted it in pen. Each book - mostly still full of matches - puts Zigmus in a place, at a time - and a very different time than now. All this from a functional trinket of capitalist promotional production and here I am feeling sentimental about it. Most people I've recounted this story to have found some absurd, uncanny, or nostalgic connection to these images. My hope is that you take a close look and see if you can find one yourself somehow.