MODERN CONFLICTS
Monika Eva Hauck
12.-30.08.2026

Modern Conflicts explores how meaning is shaped and destabilized through the accumulation of images. Created by layering media coverage of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the work compresses multiple perspectives into photographic collages where narratives blur and certainty begins to dissolve. As images overlap, fragments of information compete for attention, producing compositions that reflect the confusion, contradiction, and emotional fatigue of navigating an increasingly saturated media landscape. Rather than presenting a singular account of the conflict, the series examines how contemporary news cycles fragment our understanding, transforming documentation into a shifting field of competing truths and interpretations.

Layering has become a recurring methodology throughout my practice. By combining images from different contexts, I investigate how photographs can be displaced, rewritten, and reinterpreted through proximity and accumulation. What begins as documentation gradually becomes abstraction, opening space for viewers to question the authority of images and the narratives they construct. Across photography, video, and installation, I use these processes to explore media saturation, collective memory, and the unstable relationship between representation and reality. Modern Conflict exists as a series of digital collages and has also evolved into an interactive audiovisual installation, reflecting an ongoing investigation into how moving images, technology, and participation further complicate the ways we consume and make sense of information.

Bio
Monika Eva Hauck (aka monautomaton) is a Canadian-Polish interdisciplinary artist based in Helsinki, Finland. Working across photography, video, installation, printmaking, sculpture, and live audiovisual performance, her practice explores media ecologies, memory, environmental issues, and the shifting boundaries between physical and digital experience. Through layering, experimentation, and process-based methods, she creates works that question how images construct meaning and shape our understanding of the world. Hauck holds an MA in New Media from Aalto University and a BA in Studio Art from the University of Guelph. Her work has been exhibited and performed internationally, including at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Aavistus A/V Festival, Kazoo! Festival, and Tampere Film Festival.