This book was published in 1996 by the Contemporary Art Gallery on the occasion of the exhibition Claudia Hart: Dr. Faustie’s Guide to Real Estate at the Contemporary Art Gallery, September 7 – October 19, 1996.

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Not An Angel

Claudia Hart

Claudia Hart is a Berlin-based artist whose recent projects are a pastiche of illustrations derived from children's books and writing from various influential texts which explore how individuals compromise themselves within systems of power. These projects have been realized both in the form of exhibitions and published books.

For the Contemporary Art Gallery, Hart is presenting a new series of thirty-two gouache paintings on paper entitled *Dr. Faustie's Guide to Real Estate Development* plus a new video projection entitled *Face Dancing*. In *Dr. Faustie*, as in her earlier work, she tackles the theme of evil and the ways in which people ingratiate and adapt themselves to power. It synthesizes various sources, among them *Faust, Parts I and Il* by Goethe; *Goethe and His Age* by George Lukacs; *All That is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity* by Marshall Berman; and *How to Win Friends and Influence People* by Dale Carnegie. With irony and humour, Hart interprets Carnegie's course as a dialogue between Mephisto and Faust that plays off the original Goethe text. This project is directly inspired by issues of real estate development, speculation and a pumped-up economy written about allegorically by Goethe in the early 19th century. Hart proposes that this example has its parallels in post-unification Berlin and post­-Expo Vancouver.

Having exhibited widely in Europe and the United States, this is Claudia Hart's first exhibition in Canada.

Essay: “Not an Angel: Claudia Hart,” Peter Culley

A detail of work by Claudia Hart. It is an illustration of a blue dog popping his head out of a yellow paper bag. A poem is written above the dog's head. 

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Eight works of drawing are mounted on the gallery walls. They vary in size but share the same light pink background. The style of drawing mimics comics: texts and pink bears appear in the squares.

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An installation view of a gallery space shows drawings by the same artist on the walls. Drawings vary in size but share the same light pink background. The style of drawing mimics comic books.

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Eleven drawings are installed in the gallery. In a comic book style formatting, certain characters such as a pink bear dressed in blue and blue docs are repeatedly depicted in different scenes.

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Two artworks are visible in this photograph. A comic-styled drawing of a pink bear is installed on the back wall. A video work of a woman in a dark blue background is on the front wall. 

Claudia Hart

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