Edition of 2, 4 AP
Dust, screen print, flocking, metal foil on white hand-cut Stonehenge paper
77.5 x 279 cm
Unique in its execution, this collaboration challenged these four artists to convey their art through print and papermaking, when they are known for their experiential art: how art is not an object, but an experience.
Following the footsteps of the Surrealist masters, Carsten Höller, Tobias Rehberger, Anri Sala, and Rirkrit Tiravanija used the game of Cadavre Exquis (Exquisite Corpse) to create fantastic composite works with STPI. This bold process required the artists to completely surrender their individual artistic control; where an artist would start a work and the next artist—given only a sliver of what had already been created as guidance—will pick up where the previous one left off. Free from calculated reasoning, each artwork is uniquely whimsical and unabashedly nonconformist, a melting pot of four individual parts guided into cohesion by the invisible hand of haphazard chance.
This body of works explores the little-understood realm of unconscious influence. Exquisite Corpse is a testament to how each artist relates to one other on a subconscious level, despite the absence of dialogue, negotiation, and the considerable challenge of merging four distinct artistic styles. One can see this through the unexpected colour harmony of Rehberger’s Al Capone portrait, paired with Höller’s colour Venn diagram in (dreams that money cannot buy) (2016); as well as the surprising technical harmony of flocking, utilised by both Tiravanija and Höller in Transgender Question Seafood Vaporiser (2016). In the latter work, Höller’s portion, inspired by an Italian restaurant menu, formed the unexpected finishing piece to Rehberger’s artistic creation of a dwarf which ended at its ankles.
Unique in its execution, this collaboration challenged these four artists to convey their art through print and papermaking, when they are known for their experiential art: how art is not an object, but an experience. Surrealistic automatism was the means to this end, and on a larger scale, these works mirror the organic process of the creation of a society; how each member of a society is unknowingly influenced by one another. These works were showcased in the group exhibition: Carsten Höller, Tobias Rehberger, Anri Sala & Rirkrit Tiravanija: Exquisite Trust (Blindly Collective Collaborations), STPI Gallery, Singapore (2017); and were subsequently selected by Yokohama Triennale (2017) and its Co-Director Akiko Miki, to be presented at the Yokohama Museum of Art alongside Surrealist artworks from the museum’s permanent collection.
Previously trained as a scientist, Carsten Höller (b. 1961, Brussels) applies said knowledge to his work as an internationally renowned artist; concentrating particularly on the nature of human relationships. Known to create situations that alter our interaction with the world, Höller explores human perceptions through participatory works that prompt us to reimagine the way we move through the world.
The artist is well-known for decades of his major installations, which include Upside-Down Goggles (2009–11), a participatory experiment involving vision distortions; Test Site (2006), a series of giant slides installed in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall; and Flying Machine (1996), an interactive work in which viewers are strapped into a harness and hoisted through the air.
Together with internationally renowned and accomplished artists Tobias Rehberger, Anri Sala, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, the four of them celebrated STPI’s 15th year milestone as they take on a daring challenge to create artworks with the experimental institution through blind collaboration fueled by pure instinct and spontaneity. The collaborative works were showcased in a group exhibition, Carsten Höller, Tobias Rehberger, Anri Sala & Rirkrit Tiravanija: Exquisite Trust (Blindly Collective Collaborations) (2017).
Selected major exhibitions include Artists for Studio Voltaire, Studio Voltaire, London (2018); Carsten Höller: Reason, Gagosian, New York (2017); Doubt, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, (2016); Decision, Hayward Gallery, London (2015); Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2011); Divided Divided, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2010); Amusement Park, MASS MoCA, Massachusetts (2006); and Une exposition à Marseille, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille (2004).
Höller has presented in various platforms and biennales, including the Venice Biennale (2015, 2009, 2005, and 2003); Gwangju Biennale (2014, 2010); Berlin Biennale (2014); Sharjah Biennial (2013); Bienal de São Paulo (2008); and Biennale de Lyon (2003).
