Carsten Höller
10 Jun - 06 Sep 2015
CARSTEN HÖLLER
Decision
10 June - 6 September 2015
Carsten Höller: Decision is the artist’s first major survey show in the UK.
The exhibition, which sprawls across Hayward Gallery and erupts beyond its roof and walls, explores perception and decision making.
Confronting visitors with a series of choices, it features mirrors, disconcerting doubles and mysterious objects which together create an impression of a world where nothing is quite as it seems.
Born in Belgium to German parents, Höller trained as a scientist – gaining an advanced degree in agricultural entomology – before becoming an artist.
Over the past 20 years Höller has created experiential installations, participatory artworks and immersive environments.
These often feature disorientating architecture and perception-altering devices, which Höller refers to as ‘artificial limbs for parts of your body that you don’t even know you’ve lost’.
Believing that ‘people are often more powerful than artworks’, Höller sees his work as ‘incomplete’ without visitor interaction. Under Höller, Hayward Gallery is transformed into platform – part laboratory, part playground – dedicated solely to human experience.
Carsten Höller lives and works in Stockholm. His 2006 installationTest Site saw the artist install a series of giant slides in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. His solo shows include Experience at the New Museum, New York (2011), Carrousel at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2008) and Half Fiction at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2003).
Decision
10 June - 6 September 2015
Carsten Höller: Decision is the artist’s first major survey show in the UK.
The exhibition, which sprawls across Hayward Gallery and erupts beyond its roof and walls, explores perception and decision making.
Confronting visitors with a series of choices, it features mirrors, disconcerting doubles and mysterious objects which together create an impression of a world where nothing is quite as it seems.
Born in Belgium to German parents, Höller trained as a scientist – gaining an advanced degree in agricultural entomology – before becoming an artist.
Over the past 20 years Höller has created experiential installations, participatory artworks and immersive environments.
These often feature disorientating architecture and perception-altering devices, which Höller refers to as ‘artificial limbs for parts of your body that you don’t even know you’ve lost’.
Believing that ‘people are often more powerful than artworks’, Höller sees his work as ‘incomplete’ without visitor interaction. Under Höller, Hayward Gallery is transformed into platform – part laboratory, part playground – dedicated solely to human experience.
Carsten Höller lives and works in Stockholm. His 2006 installationTest Site saw the artist install a series of giant slides in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. His solo shows include Experience at the New Museum, New York (2011), Carrousel at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2008) and Half Fiction at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2003).