HRVOJE HIRŠL Process and System
Materiality of a moment
Abstract explosions and implosions of random and deliberate stains and their trajectories contract and expand, while here and there the infinite black disintegrates and lets colour run through. The saturated surfaces of the drawings dissolve into various textures and imprints inscribed into the paper. At the same time, the extremes of black create abstract compositions whose rhythm of motion speaks of the intensity of an action. As we follow its expressive marks across the displayed papers, our perception remains on the surface, tracing infinite variations and variables of visual expression. The drawings pursue a play of forms and their variations, repetitive and entirely new at once, partly extending, continuing, and overlapping one another; and yet, within the aluminium frame, each contains its own world in the making.
Visual vortices in the drawings of Hrvoje Hiršl remind of the modernist works that convey the materiality and tangibility of colour, yet what we see is not essential for their understanding. What we see is, of course, important, but not because we are looking at an artwork as such, rather because we are looking at the result of an artistic act, the imprint of a certain process of exploration. Since for the artist the resulting visuality is nothing more than a possible semblance of things at a given moment, he confronts the (im)possibilities of perceiving the reality of the moment in which the work comes into being. Moreover, the final drawing overwhelms the optic nerve with information that cannot be understood only through the prism of the visual, since “our eyes see only a fragment of the electromagnetic waves, primarily light, and even then this happens within a limited frequency range; we do not perceive the infrared or ultraviolet spectrum”, as Hrvoje Hiršl wrote in his text The Limit of Representation (2021). Because of the limitations of the visual spectrum, sight alone is not sufficient for grasping reality. For the artist, the exhibited drawings are therefore traces of a process in which his own energy is inscribed into paper, within a given space and time. Each drawing functions as a kind of journal entry, transcending conventional modes of documenting.
He engages with the materiality of reality itself, fragile by nature and perpetually elusive.
Or, in the Hiršl’s own words: “By looking, we change what we are trying to see, and this prevents us from ever seeing reality as it truly is.”
Over the past several years, the artist has explored the limitations of seeing through a series of works that address the limits of representation, i.e., works that engage with the visual by investigating the invisible structures and underlying principles behind it. For example, Dimensions of a Line (2025) explored the limits of representation through the lens of quantum optics, placing a laser beam at the centre of an installation, which under the influence of sound waves became three-dimensional and tangible. Similarly, in the work Sound Imprint (2022), Hiršl shapes black pigment using sound waves, so that the resulting picture documents the very process of its creation.
After all, for him, the visual is never the ultimate point of an artwork, but rather a medium for transmitting information. The shown drawings, therefore, follow the same investigative principles, although the difference lies in the analogue process of their making. As his primary material, the artist uses industrial pigment ink, which becomes a medium of documentation in itself. The range of inks varies, from those used by graffiti artists in markers to industrial inks employed for dyeing leather or for marking in manufacturing. Through circular movements, the ink spreads across the surface of the paper, mixed with additions of iron oxide, graphite and charcoal. Iron oxide – that is, rust – is a pigment also found in magnetic recording media, from cassette tapes to floppy disks and early hard drives.
A drawing is finished at the moment of a certain saturation, when the resulting texture appears as the outcome of a natural process, making the entire procedure impossible to replicate. Through the use of alcohol and other chemical agents, bluish and violet hues emerge on the surface, marking the breakdown of the black pigment. Since the artist employs various chemical agents, an element of randomness is introduced into the process, one that he consciously plays with. Hiršl says: “By constructing a system, I define the parameters within which it develops, but I never close it completely, because only this way can it remain alive.” He gives up complete control over the system, yet still guides it in the desired direction. At the same time, he allows the process of one drawing to become part of another, enabling the front and the reverse to exchange places. The matter of the artist’s gestures thus describes nothing beyond itself: it is inscribed into the paper. However, the frame contains the year, medium, location and intervention, ensuring that the work is not somewhere out there – it is embedded within clear socio-economic coordinates that make the process visible.
Irena Borić
Hrvoje Hiršl (1982) is a Croatian conceptual artist whose transdisciplinary practice focuses on the exploration of systems and processes that can be guided, but never fully controlled. In his work, Hiršl transforms both material and immaterial phenomena, such as light, sound, and chance, into aesthetic experiences that question the relationship between the natural and the technological. He works with different media, from light and sound installations and robotics to painting and text, exploring the infrastructures and politics that shape contemporary life. He is a recipient of the ARTeCHÓ (Art, Economy & Technology) grant for research in quantum technologies (2023), and has participated in numerous international residencies, including iii AIR (The Hague), ART OMI (New York), Crossing Parallels (Delft), and Kulturkontakt AIR (Vienna).
