Thomas Houseago

Moun Room . 2013–2014

Photos: © Genevieve Hanson . + Hauser & Wirth . wallpaper

Houseago is most widely identified with monumental sculptures of the human body, figures admired for their brute physicality and potent tactility. Drawing upon and deftly subverting classical sources, the artist creates forms that hover between power and vulnerability, old and new worlds.
But with ‘Moun Room’, Houseago reverses his standard subject-object relationship and, for the first time, places the viewer in the role of primary figure and active participant. ‘Moun Room’ invites us to move through space and among complex screens of the artist’s carefully layered and pierced materials, rather than to circle an opaque form. It calls upon us to explore its softly glowing channels and unravel the processes by which Houseago has assembled and reassembled physical space in an effort to chart fresh emotional territory.
Hauser & Wirth