BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//PYVOBJECT//NONSGML Version 1//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:events.uid.4851@www.discovernikkei.org DTSTART:20141111T000000Z DTEND:20150117T000000Z DESCRIPTION:<strong>Opening: Monday 10 November 6 &ndash\; 8 pm</strong>\n\ nNew York&hellip\; Hauser &amp\; Wirth is pleased to present &lsquo\;Thoma s Houseago. MOUN ROOM&rsquo\;\, an immersive environment that represents a departure for the artist. Houseago is most widely identified with monume ntal sculptures of the human body. His figures are admired for their brut e physicality and a potent tactility redolent of their making. Drawing up on and deftly subverting classical sources\, Houseago creates forms that hover between power and vulnerability\, old and new worlds. But with &lsq uo\;Moun Room&rsquo\;\, the artist reverses his standard subject-object r elationship and\, for the first time\, places the viewer in the role of p rimary figure and active participant. &lsquo\;Moun Room&rsquo\; invites u s to move through space and among complex screens of the artist&rsquo\;s carefully layered and pierced materials\, rather than to circle an opaque form. It calls upon us to explore its softly glowing channels and unrave l the processes by which Houseago has assembled and reassembled physical space in an effort to chart fresh emotional territory.\n\n&lsquo\;Thomas Houseago. MOUN ROOM&rsquo\; will be on view from 10 November 2014 through 17 January 2015 at Hauser &amp\; Wirth&rsquo\;s downtown gallery at 511 West 18th Street. In conjunction with the exhibition\, the Martha Graham Dance Company will perform a selection from Graham&rsquo\;s most sculptur al choreography\, which\, like the art of Thomas Houseago\, draws inspira tion from primal \n gestures and celebrates the emotional architecture of the body. Performances will include selections from &lsquo\;Errand into t he Maze&rsquo\;\, &lsquo\;Canticle for Innocent Comedians&rsquo\;\, and & lsquo\;Dark Meadow&rsquo\;\, and will be performed during gallery hours f rom 11 to 13 December 2014.\n\n<strong>About &lsquo\;Moun Room&rsquo\;</st rong>\n\nMeasuring approximately 37 feet by 45 feet wide\, and 12 feet tal l\, &lsquo\;Moun Room&rsquo\; is comprised of three chambers contained wi thin one another. It retains the rough-hewn handmade quality that charact erizes Houseago&rsquo\;s oeuvre. In early 2014\, the artist conceived and built the first room and inner chamber of this work. During subsequent t ravels in Asia\, where he visited the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia a nd the Silver and Golden Pavilions of Kyoto\, Japan\, his vision for &lsq uo\;Moun Room&rsquo\; evolved. The proportions and layout of his chambers distantly recall those of ancient temples\, and the spaces that Houseago has conceived &ndash\; extending both within and outside of his structur e&rsquo\;s physical walls &ndash\; invite meditation upon movement and co des of behavior in response to architecture.\n\nHewing to traditions of l ow-grade sculptural construction\, the walls of &lsquo\;Moun Room&rsquo\; are built from individual panels made of TUF-CAL plaster and are linked to gether through the use of iron re-bar. The architectural ribbing of the b acksides of these panels reveals that the structure&rsquo\;s internal &ls quo\;bones&rsquo\; are akin to the ribs of the human body. But Houseago h as reversed expected anatomy so that what is normally concealed and prote cted is externally exposed. Similarly\, the soft\, smooth skin of his str ucture&rsquo\;s pearlescent walls can only be experienced from within &ls quo\;Moun Room&rsquo\;.\n\nPlaying with notions of negative and positive\, solid and void\, geometric shapes are cut from the panel walls and const ructed in bas-relief\, mimicking the lunar phase of the moon. This circul ar motif\, evocative here of mystical celestial medallions\, has periodic ally recurred throughout Houseago&rsquo\;s oeuvre. In Moun Room the artis t has created apertures of varying sizes &ndash\; some large enough to wa lk through and others like small portholes &ndash\; and uses them to enga ge the viewer in exploration and play. He bisects and reframes the viewer &rsquo\;s understanding of movement and space as the body moves around an d through the work\, peers out from within it.\n\nIn many ways\, Houseago &rsquo\;s &lsquo\;Moun Room&rsquo\; is a series of cracks\, fractures\, a nd planes. Its nuanced surfaces of delicate angles and accentuations have ruptured from the act of layering plaster on plaster. The subtle differe nces among each panel and chamber evoke a sense of rhythm and movement. T he method by which Houseago achieves these visual effects has evolved ove r a period of nearly ten years\, derived from the artist&rsquo\;s deep co mmitment to process and materials. Working with the simplicity and rawnes s of plaster or clay\, Houseago&rsquo\;s overall body of work has long em phasized the performative act of sculpture manifested into a literal proc ess of looking\, thinking\, and perceiving.\n\nLikewise\, the creation of &lsquo\;Moun Room&rsquo\; has so fully consumed Houseago&rsquo\;s artisti c practice over the course of this last year\, that its development has b ecome a ritualized part of daily studio life. &lsquo\;I&rsquo\;ve always dreamed of building an environment for showing my sculptures&rsquo\;\, th e artist has said. &lsquo\;I loved the idea of the museum&hellip\; but wan ted to reclaim it as an artistic domain&rsquo\;. In this sense\, &lsquo\; Moun Room&rsquo\; has come to assume the notion of a &lsquo\;maison cubis te&rsquo\; for the artist\, transpiring into a room of repose whose makin g has tuned his emotional compass art toward a new direction and broader possibilities. Embracing a sculptural practice that seeks to activate the viewer more fully\, &lsquo\;Moun Room&rsquo\; circles back to Houseago&r squo\;s early encounters with performance art\, which influenced much of his practice while he was at art school in Leeds\, England.\n\n<strong>Ab out the Artist</strong>\n\nThomas Houseago was born in Leeds\, England and currently lives and works in Los Angeles CA. He studied in Europe at the Central Saint Martins College of Art\, London and at De Ateliers\, Amste rdam. His work has been featured in major solo exhibitions worldwide incl uding: Gemeentemuseum den Haag\, The Hague\, Netherlands (2014)\; &lsquo\ ;As I Went Out One Morning&rsquo\;\, Storm King Art Center\, Mountainvill e NY (2013)\; &lsquo\;What Went Down&rsquo\;\, The Centre International d &rsquo\;Art et du Paysage de l&rsquo\;Ile de Vassivi&egrave\;re\, Vassivi &egrave\;re\, France (2011)\, realized in cooperation with Museum Abteibe rg\, M&ouml\;nchengladbach\, Germany (2011) and Modern Art Oxford\, Oxfor d\, England (2010)\; and &lsquo\;Striding Figure/Standing Figure&rsquo\; a t the Galleria Borghese\, Rome\, Italy (2013).\n\nHis work has also been shown in important intentional group shows\, which include: Museum of Con temporary Art\, Chicago IL (2014)\; Le Consortium\, Provence\, France (20 13)\; Palazzo Grassi\, Venice\, Italy (2011)\; Whitney Museum of American Art\, New York NY (2010)\; and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA )\, Los Angeles CA (2010).\n\nFor more information\, visit this <a href="http: //www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/2336/thomas-houseago-moun-room/view/">pa ge</a> . DTSTAMP:20240418T035429Z SUMMARY:Thomas Houseago\, MOUN ROOM URL:/en/events/2014/11/11/thomas-houseago-moun-room/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR