The Institute of Contemporary Art - ICA
Boston
100 Northern Avenue
617 4783101 FAX 617 2664021
WEB
Carsten Holler
dal 21/1/2003 al 27/4/2003
617-266-5152 FAX 617-266-4021
WEB
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Carsten Holler



 
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21/1/2003

Carsten Holler

The Institute of Contemporary Art - ICA, Boston

For his exhibition at the ICA Holler has decided to explore the notion of a half-state, neither entirely one thing nor another, in a series of experiences that hover enigmatically in a state of constant "in-betweenness."


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Carsten Höller has been shaking the foundations of his viewers' assumptions for the last few years with installations or interactive sculptures that deliberately but often playfully induce doubts and confusion. For his exhibition at the ICA--his first solo museum exhibition in the U. S.--Höller has decided to explore the notion of a half-state, neither entirely one thing nor another, in a series of experiences that hover enigmatically in a state of constant "in-betweenness."

Comparable perhaps to the way a scientist works, Höller employs the audience as subjects, so to speak, of perceptual and psychological experimentation. However, as no data is collected, and no objective results are aimed for, his works quite unscientifcally emphasize the notion of individual and collective experience; he produces the instruments allowing the visitors to experiment with themselves. Rather than presenting what is "known" to an audience, or what he "knows," Höller is interested in the exploration of the more elusive and more personal "unknown."

Höller's stainless steel slide sculpture, Slide #6, occupies the central core of the ICA and winds through the galleries of the ICA's unconventional open-plan space. The artist has established that the directed and yet out-of-control movement involved in riding through a slide, the unavoidable journey, is one that induces both uncertainty and happiness. Entering on the second floor, visitors can ride the slide down two floors, passing under the ICA's prominent central staircase. To reach the second floor galleries, and the entrance to the slide, visitors move through Choice Corridor, a disorienting and gradually darkening passageway that forces viewers to rely on non-visual stimuli to navigate their way.


Light Corner, in the second floor gallery, is a freestanding construction of two walls holding 1,792 light bulbs flickering at a frequency of 7.8 hz, which induces strong retinal after-images. This nigh-hallucinatory work is best experienced with closed eyes, when color fields with an alternating predominance of red, blue, and green are "seen." This overwhelming light effect is reflected in the surface of the sculpture, Black Sphere, a human-sized spherical object made out of acrylic glass that has the potential to work as a form of transport.

The final work in the exhibition is The Forest, a special pair of glasses containing a small LCD monitor in front of each eye that allows viewers to experience the effect of simultaneously seeing different films with each eye. At the beginning, both films (meandering shots between trees in a snowy forest) run concurrently, producing a 3D image. However, at a certain point, the two cameras diverge and only rarely rejoin for very short moments through the rest of the film. The viewer is left puzzled and confused, as one's mind incessantly attempts to make sense of the optical stereo information.

Höller has been working both independently and in collaboration with other artists for over ten years. Perhaps as a result of his earlier scientific training, his work has frequently set out to study a particular concept--in the past Höller has made series devoted to the idea of security, children, love, hallucinations, happiness, animals, games, doubt/certainty, and a group of sculpture/vehicles that looked at different modes of travel.

Höller was born in Belgium to German parents and has lived and worked in Stockholm, Sweden, for the past two years. His work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in the 2002 Sao Paulo Bienal and the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, in 2002, and in one-person exhibitions at the Prada Foundation, Milan, in 2000/2001, at Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, in 2001/2002, and at the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, in 2002.

Image:
Carsten Höller
Light Corner, 2000
Courtesy of the artist, Schipper & Krome, Berlin, and Casey Kaplan, New York


ICA
955 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02115
Tel: 617-266-5152 Fax: 617-266-4021

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