2021

Notes on Falling

Liverpool Street Gallery
Sydney, Australia


List of work/Publication


Photos courtesy of docQment

RYAN HOFFMANN STUDIO © 2025 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED


Experiencing falling—as idea and action:
Leaving the Berlin studio, I slipped on one of those stairways that catches an hour of full light each day. Cold cement met my wrist and back. I fell. As I picked myself up, I realised I was drawn to the experience of falling—not just physically, but as a concept to explore and reframe. Cycles of impermanence emerged.

This motif of falling shaped the forms, notes, and titles in this exhibition. Influenced by waterfalls and leaves, abstract drawings and watercolours led to the creation of three-dimensional, steam-bent canvases. Elements are moved, attached, removed, painted, and reassembled.

As I work on these paintings, I also work through the parts of my life that are falling. A companion text, Notes on Falling, offers allegorical reflections that serve as entry points to the paintings, their titles drawn from these notes. Though the notes and paintings stand alone, they are intended to complement one another.

Together, they gather small moments—reminders of my place in the natural world and the passage of time.