Sweetwater

HC

Figuring Things Out

July 9, 2022 to August 6, 2022

Leipziger Straße 56-58, Berlin, Germany

Exhibition Text

The horizon tilted, turned vertical. Gravity followed.

We stepped through a door into a multi-level building. We can’t say for sure whether our perception was altered. We pull a chair towards a desk and sit. We grab a pen from the table.

Does it rest or does it stick? Drawing it over the table’s surface leaves nothing but colourless dents in the sanded material. Not real scratches, only blind hints at the linear movement of a pointed item under slight pressure. Gravity flips back to its familiar direction, though it doesn’t seem to affect the objects which furnish the room. They stick to the floor-turned-walls and morph into the shape of reliefs, indicating the potential of an altered perception.

There are multiple ways to approach this situation. But maybe we should just accept that a table is not a table and a chair is not a chair. Trace by trace, our pen begins to function again. The fragmented lines still don’t add up to any sense we might have been able to make of them. They are parts of a puzzle yet incomplete. We can only guess that their nature is modular: singular parts with no discernible meaning, potentially combined in multiple ways to constitute any number of entities.

There is no table without a table leg or a table top. There is no painting without a surface. There is no line of thought disconnected to its predecessor or successor. There is no fragment without a whole. Yet, we might figure out how to simulate a perceptive unbrokenness. Acceptance of this illusion is halfway toward the circular entity for which we aim. Our heads are round, so our thoughts can change direction.

Let’s try to draw a picture of that tilted horizon. The sun doesn’t sink, instead it moves to the left and sets behind a vertical surface. The final sun rays flood the room once more, rendering shadows of unfamiliar shapes. We sit down to feast at a table-turned-painting that mirrors what we have just experienced. We agree to the stipulations that come with gravity, and, suddenly, we tip over.

Installation Views
Media © Sweetwater 2025
Media © Sweetwater 2025
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Media © Sweetwater 2025
Artworks
HC
HC
HC
HC
HC

HC

Figuring Things Out

July 9, 2022 to August 6, 2022

Leipziger Straße 56-58, Berlin, Germany

HC

HC

Daniel, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

448 × 80 × 43 cm

176 ⅜ × 31 ½ × 16 ⅞ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

Daniel, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

448 × 80 × 43 cm

176 ⅜ × 31 ½ × 16 ⅞ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

Daniel, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

448 × 80 × 43 cm

176 ⅜ × 31 ½ × 16 ⅞ in

HC

HC

Tihcs, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

158 × 149 × 60 cm

62 ¼ × 58 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

Tihcs, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

158 × 149 × 60 cm

62 ¼ × 58 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

Tihcs, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

158 × 149 × 60 cm

62 ¼ × 58 ⅝ × 23 ⅝ in

HC

HC

The Novelist, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

79 × 142 × 58 cm

31 ⅛ × 55 ⅞ × 22 ⅞ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

The Novelist, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

79 × 142 × 58 cm

31 ⅛ × 55 ⅞ × 22 ⅞ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

The Novelist, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

79 × 142 × 58 cm

31 ⅛ × 55 ⅞ × 22 ⅞ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

The Novelist, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

79 × 142 × 58 cm

31 ⅛ × 55 ⅞ × 22 ⅞ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

The Novelist, 2022

Wooden panels, champagne chalk, pigments, modular table frames, 2 tubular steel chairs "comeback 041" (L&C Stendal)

79 × 142 × 58 cm

31 ⅛ × 55 ⅞ × 22 ⅞ in

HC

HC

Sunrise, 2022

Wooden panel, champagne chalk, pigments, blue wooden frame, glass

41.5 × 30 cm

16 ⅜ × 11 ¾ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

Sunrise, 2022

Wooden panel, champagne chalk, pigments, blue wooden frame, glass

41.5 × 30 cm

16 ⅜ × 11 ¾ in

HC

HC

Death of the Author, 2022

Mirror covered light bulb, aluminum stick, plastic parts, paint

100 × 7 × 7 cm

39 ⅜ × 2 ¾ × 2 ¾ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

Death of the Author, 2022

Mirror covered light bulb, aluminum stick, plastic parts, paint

100 × 7 × 7 cm

39 ⅜ × 2 ¾ × 2 ¾ in

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Detail

HC

Death of the Author, 2022

Mirror covered light bulb, aluminum stick, plastic parts, paint

100 × 7 × 7 cm

39 ⅜ × 2 ¾ × 2 ¾ in

HC

Figuring Things Out

July 9, 2022 to August 6, 2022

Leipziger Straße 56-58, Berlin, Germany

Media © Sweetwater 2025
Media © Sweetwater 2025
Media © Sweetwater 2025
Media © Sweetwater 2025
Media © Sweetwater 2025
Media © Sweetwater 2025
Media © Sweetwater 2025
Media © Sweetwater 2025
Artist Biography

HC is a collective founded in 2016 by Friedemann Heckel (*1986, Germany) and Lukas Müller (*1986, Germany).