In the course of collecting some information to write this bio, we let out one of the Black beauty stick insects, Peruphasma schultei. Pinny legs, one by one, up his Kenzo sweater, juice-pink vestigial wings. As if to propose an axiom to start speaking about the work again, he says, “It looks so nice on the sweater. But we could always say that – ‘this sweater looks nice on you’ or ‘you look nice on that sweater.’”

As an artist who grew up in Prague during the 90s and who is now staging performances across the countries of an increasingly unstable European Union, contingency and informality are reoccurring elements in the narrative of his life. He spends his time moving from place to place, leaving behind drops of lavender oil on the bedsheets he sleeps in. A nature child living within urban surroundings, he uses performance as a means to create archipelagos of increased presence that block out the feelings of desensation and dissociation awaiting outside the gallery door.

At a glance, this gasping and drenched clan enact separation issues, fears for the future, feelings of ineptitude and desensitisation. It is perhaps also emblematic of Hofmann and his contemporaries’ precarious experience of working in the creative industries who, untethered from a home, find friendships in wider circles as they gig around Europe.

However, within what appears anxious and strained, the artist provides a counterbalance effect of amusement and explorative play. These movements analyse the limits of a constructed reality and sense of self in order to reveal or will an alternate in which we have the power to act.

For a moment, their attire takes centre stage. Whether he uses pieces stolen out of Ikea wardrobes or clothing provided by designers such as Ottolinger, Stefanie Biggel, Louise Lyngh Bjerregaard and Anne Sofie Madsen, Hofmann manages to add a cohesive personal touch to the styling of his performances. After an extensive instant of stillness, there is a sudden and simultaneous outburst of gasp, cough and sharp exhalation- the group has been holding its breath for the entire time.