'Susan Hiller: Dedicated to the Unknown' at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain
8 June 2024
With an innovative multimedia practice spanning more than five decades, Susan Hiller is considered to be one of the most influential artists of her generation. This important exhibition – the first major solo show dedicated to the artist since her death in 2019 – presents the breadth of Hiller's investigations into that which escapes rationality, and lies beyond what we recognize, through early and late works in varied media such as painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation.
'Dedicated to the Unknown' focuses on an area of research that was a constant in Hiller's work: our culture's ambivalent fascination with that which lies beyond the reach of normal everyday understanding. Selected works explore beliefs in extrasensory perception, dream interpretation traditions, automatic writing practices, and collective experiences of the subconscious, unconscious, and paranormal activity. The power of the work lies neither in defending nor in denying the reality of these phenomena, but in presenting this material as "social fact" that exists in our societies. Together, the works reveal the presence of something more elusive, disturbing and fascinating beneath the surface of understanding: that life is full of unknowns.
Throughout her career, Hiller collected and recontextualized a wide variety of cultural artifacts, creating cold, minimalist, serial works that pushed the boundaries of postconceptual practice into mysterious and unexplored territory. In the words of the artist: "I am committed to working with what I call ghosts, that is, with cultural debris, fragments and things that are invisible to most people but intensely important to a few: situations, ideas and experiences that they pursue collectively."
'Dedicated to the Unknown' features works on loan from the Estate of Susan Hiller, Lisson Gallery and the Inelcom Collection, along with a large installation from the collection of the Helga de Alvear Museum.
Image: Susan Hiller, Homage to Marcel Duchamp: Aura (Green Girl), 2011 (detail) © Estate of Susan Hiller, courtesy Lisson Gallery.
