The Snow Show
Installation at the Snow Show in Turin.
Carsten Holler‘s art career began while doing graduate studies in animal sciences, a background that informs part of his work. Holler has shown in biennial exhibitions like Manifesta, Venice, Lyon and Sao Paolo. In 1997 he participated in Documenta X. He has done solo projects at the Tate Modern (2006) and the Guggenheim Museum (2008).
Holler produces what he calls "confusion machines", normally in the form of large-scale installations. His practice is typified by open-ended arrangements rich in materials, sound and colour where no dominant idea comes to the fore. Thus Holler engages viewers by drawing them into a sensory and mental interchange, with doubt and perplexity as key components.
A number of themes run through Holler's work. He often uses doubled subjects, flipping elements upside-down or creating visual flickers between multiple realities. Animals frequently appear, as do other life forms, like mushrooms. Holler also explores the idea of play and discovery, installing amusement park slides in the gallery space or building structures that can be entered into or merely contemplated, whether soft inflatable tents or large plastic spheres.
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien began working together in New York in 1977 and nine years later established Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in the same Central Park South studio where they work today. The twenty seven person firm works primarily for institutions that value issues of aspiration and meaning, timelessness and beauty, designing buildings that are exquisitely made and useful in ways that speak to both efficiency and the spirit. Matter, light, texture, detail, and most of all experience are the essence of Williams and Tsien's architecture. Parallel to their practice, Williams and Tsien maintain active teaching careers and lecture worldwide. As educators and practitioners, Williams and Tsien are committed to making a better world through architecture.
