2 June – 31 July 2005
Thursday – Sunday 12 – 6pm
Preview Wednesday 1 June 6-9pm
Carl Michael von Hausswolff’s triptych for Beaconsfield is a juxtapositioning of new and historic works, incorporating photography, film, sound, light and olfactory sensation.
Hausswolff’s works for this, his first comprehensive exhibition in the UK, focus on the mystique of remote and abandoned habitations. Alamut, in northern Iran, provides inspiration for Beaconsfield’s new commission and is complemented by existing works including Hashima, Japan 2002 a haunting film made with Thomas Nordanstad, documenting Japan’s tiny “Battleship Island” abandoned in the East China Sea, and Thinner Bar (Italian), 1998-2003.
The three installations in Upper, Lower and Arch spaces at Beaconsfield, reflect Hausswolff’s preoccupations and speak of control and imprisonment, death and violation. This body of work mourns the ruthless politic of exploitation endemic to the daily plundering of world resources, the ultimate desolation of our natural habitat and the subsequent impoverisation of human expectation.
Carl Michael von Hausswolff’s creative output over the past twenty years has been interdisciplinary and prolific. His oeuvre includes practice as a curator and publisher across the worlds of art and music. Founder of the cult record label Radium he is better known in the UK for his electronic sound work. Most recent exhibition hosts have included Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, Tate Liverpool (as part of the Liverpool Biennial) and Astrup Fearnley, Oslo with Yoko Ono. Previous exhibitions have also spanned a wide range of international venues, such as CCA Kitakyushu, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Moderna Museet, Stockholm and P.S.1, New York. Solo exhibitions in 2004 have been in Austria, Finland, Thailand, Sweden and Germany. Hausswolff has shown work in La Biennale di Venezia for two consecutive years and will again premier a new work, Physical Interrogation Techniques, in Venice this September.
Beaconsfield will premiere Alamut, Iran 2005 – the film by CM von Hausswolff and Thomas Nordanstad – as part of its tenth birthday celebrations in Autumn 2005.