HERSTORICAL VIBES

The exhibition forms part of an international artistic exchange between female artists from Hamburg and Xiamen. Building on an earlier encounter at the Koganecho Art Community in Japan, the collaborative project “Transcend Biology?” was first realized at Mom Art Space in Hamburg. With “Herstorical Vibes”, this dialogue now continues in China, consciously shifting into a context shaped by historical, economic, and familial entanglements.
The exhibition takes place at No. 97 West District International Art Community in Fulin Village, Longhu Town. Longhu is known for its so-called Overseas Houses—residences constructed in the early twentieth century with capital accumulated by Chinese migrants working within economic networks across Southeast Asia. Their Western-influenced facades, incorporating elements of Neoclassicism, Art Nouveau, and early Art Deco, stand as material witnesses to global trade relations and asymmetrical mobility.
Yet these buildings do not simply replicate Western architectural models. They were built by Chinese families, financed through labor embedded in transnational systems, and situated within a local social fabric in which women often carried central social and familial responsibilities.
During the same historical period, Europe experienced profound transformations in women’s roles. In South China, however, such shifts frequently unfolded in more structural and less visible ways—within the interior spaces of homes, family structures, and everyday social practices. While architecture outwardly expressed mobility and representation, the sustaining cultural and social labor often remained inside, embedded in daily routines largely invisible to the public sphere.
“Herstorical Vibes” foregrounds the historical and contemporary impact of women. The title refers to the concept of “Herstory”, which seeks to make visible women’s experiences and contributions long overlooked within dominant historical narratives.
Bringing together diverse artistic perspectives, the exhibition opens a multifaceted dialogue between personal memory, material history, and broader social contexts. At the same time, the project positions itself as a reflection on female artistic practice—each work articulating its own questions, ambitions, and forms of inquiry.
Dagmar Rauwald presents paintings on transparent foil alongside a film work realized at  No. 97 West District International Art Community in Fulin Village.
++

Famille Rouge
For this project, Dagmar Rauwald developed a color code in which a vibrant red or turquoise blue is combined with light violet—traditionally associated with women—and supported by more restrained tones. These relationships generate painterly gestures and abstract compositions that are not illustrative but relational: color becomes a carrier of proximity, tension, and cohesion.
The title Famille Rouge refers to the art-historical classification of Chinese porcelain such as Famille rose and Famille verte, produced for the European market since the eighteenth century. While the term originally described a coherent color palette rather than a social family, Rauwald reinterprets it conceptually. Starting from the Chinese character for “family,” abstract compositions emerge that contain fragmentary family images. Family is not depicted but negotiated painterly—as a dynamic field between intimacy and structure, visibility and interiority.

红色家族
在《红色家族》这个系列作品中，达格玛·劳瓦尔德创作出一套色彩编码体系，将鲜艳的红色、青绿色与淡紫色——传统上象征女性相关的色彩相结合，并辅以克制的中性色调。这些色彩关系生成了绘画笔触与抽象构图，作品不再是具象描绘，而呈现出关系性的表达：色彩成为亲近感、张力与凝聚力的载体。
作品标题《红色家族》源自艺术史上对中国瓷器的分类，如粉彩（Famille rose）和绿彩（Famille verte）”，这些瓷器自十八世纪起面向欧洲市场生产。原本这一术语指的是统一的色彩体系，而非社会家庭概念，但劳瓦尔德赋予其概念化的新诠释。以中文“家”字为出发点，抽象构图中浮现零散的家庭影像。家庭并非被直接呈现，而是在绘画中被“协商”出来，形成亲密与结构、可见与内在之间的动态张力。