The electrifying geometries of a traveling non-objective art exhibition on the far side of the river Tejo deeply moved the two women who had met just a few hours earlier.

No longer considering each other strangers before the revealing power of the artwork, the artists, recognizing their kinship, soon after engaged in a visual dialogue, both convinced one can be truly known by the way she chooses to place a line on a sheet of paper or how she reacts to a line, placed in a particular way on said sheet of paper.

Collaborative project

serigraphy by Hilke Hanke

linework by Irina Tehrani

Polyphonic presents the ongoing dialogue between artists Irina Tehrani and Hilke Hanke. Each artwork is initiated by one artist and the other completes the conversation: screen-printed color shapes allow an embrace by delicate linework which in its turn accepts translucent veils of vibrant color or takes shelter behind opaque fields. Two distinct visual voices sing to the same rhythm, lifting each other up into new compositions, holding the combined insight of the duo.

Beyond the aesthetics, these visual conversations are an experiment in trust, consideration and respect for how a “stranger” sees the world and celebrate the pure joy of finding kinship.

Polyphonic