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Hauser & Wirth: Reflections on Vulnerability

Hauser & Wirth gallery in London brings together nine artists from Louise Bourgeois to Richard Serra and Gordon Matta-Clark for exhibition Maisons Fragiles. Until 6 February 2016.

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Text by Heini Lehtinen

Gallery Hauser & Wirth’s exhibition Maisons Fragiles in London explores themes of fragility, vulnerability and protection through works of nine renowned artists. The works in the exhibition reflect innate sympathy towards architecture and a preoccupation with materiality. Spanning nearly a lifetime of artistic practice, Maisons Fragiles includes works by Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Isa Genzken, Robert Gober, Eva Hesse, Roni Horn, Gordon Matta-Clark, Fausto Melotti and Richard Serra.

The exhibition has borrowed its name from Louise Bourgeois’ sculpture Maisons Fragiles from 1978, which represents an exploration of the artist’s psyche. The perceived frailty of the sculpture comments on the tension between interior and exterior. Despite their fragile appearance, the structures of the sculpture are rendered in steel, and the frail appearance is only an illusion.

Roni Horn’s ‘Two Pink Tons’ from 2008 explore similar themes but through a different medium. The double sculpture made of two large pieces of solid glass plays with the disjunction between the physical properties of glass and the illusions of its presence. Robert Gober’s uncanny works question notions of ‘home’ through transforming architecture and objects, whereas Gordon Matta-Clark uses abandoned buildings as a medium and a chainsaw as an instrument in works in which he cuts the structures of the buildings and thus creates unexpected apertures and incisions.

The exhibition coincides with exhibition ‘Obscuramente – Wars of Fabio Mauri,’ which also runs at Hauser & Wirth until 6 February 2016. •

Exhibition ‘Maison Fragiles’ at Hauser & Wirth London, Great Britain, from 11 December 2015–6 February 2016.

Read also – TLmagazine 10 January 2016
Fabio Mauri: Mundanities of War and Power

Main image
Gordon Matta-Clark: Splitting (1974).
Cibachrome print. Size 101.6 x 127 cm
© 2015 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, DACS, London
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth

 

Louise Bourgeois: Maisons Fragiles (1978). Steel, 2 elements Taller Element: 213.3 x 68.5 x 35.5 cm. Shorter Element: 182.8 x 68.5 x 35.5 cm. © The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA, New York. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Louise Bourgeois: Maisons Fragiles (1978). Steel, 2 elements Taller Element: 213.3 x 68.5 x 35.5 cm. Shorter Element: 182.8 x 68.5 x 35.5 cm. © The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA, New York. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Richard Serra: Untitled (1978). Corten steel equilateral triangle 335 cm length of each side of the triangle; depth 0.6 cm. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, DACS, London. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Richard Serra: Untitled (1978). Corten steel equilateral triangle 335 cm length of each side of the triangle; depth 0.6 cm. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, DACS, London. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Roni Horn: Two Pink Tons (A) (2008). Solid cast pink glass with as-cast surfaces on all sides. 22.9 x 101.6 x 152.4 cm each, 2 units; 1.5" radii sides and bottom' © Roni Horn. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Roni Horn: Two Pink Tons (A) (2008). Solid cast pink glass with as-cast surfaces on all sides. 22.9 x 101.6 x 152.4 cm each, 2 units; 1.5" radii sides and bottom' © Roni Horn. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Fausto Melotti: I lavandai (The Launderers) (1969). brass. 133 x 90 x 57 cm. © Fondazione Fausto Melotti, Milan. Courtesy The Estate of Fausto Melotti and Hauser & Wirth. Photo Jean-Pierre Maurer.
Fausto Melotti: I lavandai (The Launderers) (1969). brass. 133 x 90 x 57 cm. © Fondazione Fausto Melotti, Milan. Courtesy The Estate of Fausto Melotti and Hauser & Wirth. Photo Jean-Pierre Maurer.
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