The installation Spielraum (Playroom) was first shown as part of Bettina John’s solo show “Das Schloß” in Halle in 2017. It consisted of automatic paintings (from oil) and a deck of cards for people to play with both conceived and created by Bettina John’s Alter Ego Colbee Hawkins. By means of simple instructions the audience was encouraged to play with the cards and take one with them to keep.
The automatic drawings and paintings are a recurring theme that Colbee Hawkins uses in various ways. She suggests that the process of making them is meditative and calming and a way to tap into one’s subconscious.
Colbee Hawkins_89 is one of Bettina John’s several Alter Egos, a Cyberhippie and activist. She concerns herself with questions around alternative value systems and has been creating work and writing texts on the subject for a few years. She publishes her insights regularly on her WordPress blog. Occasionally the Alter Ego appears publicly, for example conducting collective rituals, which she calls “Grituals” (Ritual+Gravatar, the WordPress term for Avatar). However mostly she talks to her audience online and with work that doesn’t necessarily require her presence, yet engages the onlooker.
www.colbeehawkins89.wordpress.com