PRESS RELEASE
In 2015 Pierre Huyghe was awarded the prestigious Kurt-Schwitters-Prize by the Lower Saxony Sparkassen Foundation . The prize is bestowed biennially to internationally renowned artists whose oeuvre shows clear affinities to the famous Dada artist ’ s work . Former recipients have been Sigmar Polke , Nam June Paik , Rodney Graham , Tacita Dean , Thomas Hirschhorn and Elaine Sturtevant . In conjunction with the Kurt-Schwitters-Prize , the Sprengel Museum in Hannover , Germany hosts a major solo exhibition for the recipient .
The title of Huyghe ’ s Sprengel Museum exhibition , Orphan Patterns ( January 30 - April 24 , 2016 ) refers to a concept used in mathematics , biology and game theory . The concept involves complex , self-generating patterns created by algorithms , or “ cellular automata ”— rule-based systems discovered in mathematics in the 1960s and 1970s , which were critical to the development of computer code and chaos theory . “ Cellular ” in this context refers to a pattern in which the development of each cell is determined by rules concerning its neighbors . Such patterns have also been found in nature , for example , in flower petal growth or the markings of animals .
Orphan Patterns continues themes central to the Huyghe ’ s practice , among them the staging of exhibitions as time-based experiences , the integration of chance and arbitrary elements , and the inclusion of performers , both human and animal . Especially works created since 2010 — such as the artist ’ s noted series of aquariums or Untilled , his now famous contribution to dOCUMENTA 13 — blur the boundaries between art object and nature , between human beings and animals , between scripted action and open scenario .
The exhibition Orphan Patterns follows a path through a succession of 10 rooms in the Sprengel Museum ’ s newly built wing . Visitors pass through a sequence of darkened and brightly lit spaces on a path of discovery .
The first room visitors enter is a bright , vacant space . A thin layer of finely grained pastel-colored dust covers the floor . This dust is a byproduct of the production process of the work Shore ( 2013 ), which was created during the artist ’ s major 2013-2014 solo exhibition , which toured to the Centre Pompidou , Paris ; the Museum Ludwig , Cologne and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art , Los Angeles . To create Shore , Huyghe peeled layers of colored paint from the walls of each exhibition space , in abstract patterns . The powdery residue of the wall paint became part of the installation , and was gathered at the end of each exhibition . Now distributed on the floor of the Sprengel Museum , the once distinct color palette of the dust blends as it travels through the exhibition on the soles of visitors ’ shoes .
Dust treads become most evident in the three subsequent rooms , which Huyghe has darkened and fitted with black carpeting . Only the slight shimmer of the white dust marks and a distant light from a room ahead imparts a sense of direction . In the third darkened room an LED mask rests in the corner : Players ( 2010 ), worn by a performer on opening night .
Drawn by a light in the distance , visitors traverse through another darkened space , empty save the rather startling presence of live houseflies . Following the movement of the buzzing insects towards the light , visitors emerge into a brightly lit white room . Here , the flies are innumerable , dead underfoot , massing against ceiling light fixtures and clustering in corners . Above eye-level and barely visible are two small square ledges , installed in opposite corners of the room , which hold food and shelter for the flies .
Situated amongst the insects is the work Mating , which exists in two forms ; active – performers with objects , and inactive – objects without performers . In its activated mode , two actors sit on the floor in the far corner of the room , engaged in a private game or conversation . Upon traversing the room , the interaction can be observed in detail : a man and a woman play a game of dice , each wearing an LED mask which obscures their face . The dice are made of amber , in each an insect is embedded . The players ’ respective masks light up in a rhythm that
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