CARSTEN HOLLER – ZOOLOGY
2016-07-04Trained as a scientist, Höller both echoes and surpasses scientific procedures in his work as an artist. Many of his projects invite viewer participation in order to question the facts and forms of human life. From carousels that reflect and disorient, to winding slippery slides, to vision-flipping goggles, Höller actively interrogates the functions of logic, perception, and entertainment in the larger biosphere.
“Zoology” is a selection of Höller’s recent sculptures, photographs, and prints, made between 2008 and 2016, which consider how different forms of animal life might relate to human embodied awareness. Through taxidermy, casting, molding, and collage, Höller presents beings that cannot be easily categorized: they are animals, but they do not occur in nature; they are the products of anthropocentric will—of mutation, breeding, and grafting. And just as the scientist turns captive birds into hybrids, Höller turns snakes into soft, squeezable curves of neon-pink artificiality.
Opposite – Divisions (Roach and Surface), 2016
Exhibition runs through till August 12th, 2016
Gagosian Gallery
19 place de Longemalle
1204 Geneva
Switzerland
