Haniko’s works present a range of figurative and abstract forms that are in a constant state of metamorphosis. These biomorphic creatures layer on top of each other like a diving path, forming colonies that weave together the living and the inanimate, human and non-human, animal and plant.
“In my idle moments, I often generate stories with my imagination based on scientific morsels of information. Some swallows survive the winter in the reeds, by which time they have transformed into fish or shells – so I can imagine seaweeds conquering the skies in swallow form, or whispering forgotten stories between frozen plywood. And on the water’s edge or on snow-capped peaks, we do the same in search of treasure with our fairytale magic, the sea leash.” – Haniko
The artist continues the art-based exploration begun in the 2023 duo exhibition The Weight of the Lake, in which he transformed the work of hydrobiologist-limnologist Olga Sebestyén (1891-1986) on the living world of Lake Balaton into a visual language. Further investigation revealed the knowledge heritage of another scientist, Erzsébet Kol (1897-1980), an algologist and inventor of snow and ice algae.
Haniko transforms the achievements of these two researchers, their women’s lives, into visual images of space through collage and cartography, while making the algae-ambivalence of the ecological crisis tangible to the visitor through fabulation. Through perspective-forming visual storytelling, she helps us to breathe in the midst of today’s ecological, social and mental dilemmas – together with the algae, as one being.