The unique synergy between identical twins is a connection artist sisters Melanie and Stephanie and Hausberger have continually explored through their work, creating collaboratively in alternating brushstrokes. Based in New York, together, the Austrian-born twins have developed an expressive style drawn from nature and the female form – a reflection of their upbringing against the breathtaking landscape of the Tyrolean Alps.

Returning to their hometown in South Tyrol on the Austrian-Italian border, the sisters detail their process and the deep attachments that root them in short film Apple and Colors. Directed by Italian filmmaker Massimilano Bomba, this excerpt explores their experience as twins and as artists through the natural environment that shaped them, connecting their approach to the concept of identity in the contemporary world, and ideas relating to “doubles”.

Documenting the artists in the depths of their process, the shoot encompassed four days of work, over which the two artists developed four original canvases together. Situating their art within the very environment it was borne from, Apples and Colors highlights how idyllic scenery and a slow pace of life has fed the Hausberger’s coalescent brand of creativity, enabling the sisters to guide their own narrative in a visual diary of time spent in familiar surroundings.