Installation
March 28–May 20, 2023
Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris
Carsten Höller’s Giant Triple Mushroom (2023), a two-meter-high sculpture in polychrome aluminum, is on view in the vitrine at Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris, as part of the artist’s exhibition Clocks at the rue de Castiglione gallery.
The work’s form combines enlarged cross-sections of three different species of mushroom, including the red-capped fly agaric, reflecting Höller’s fascination with the idea that this notoriously toxic and hallucinogenic fungus may have played a role in the development of shamanism, and thus constitutes a link to ancient proto-religious culture. The three species also represent evolutionary time, as the different shapes, colors, and psychoactive ingredients of their fruiting bodies most certainly evolved from those of a common ancestor. Finally, Giant Triple Mushroom resonates with Höller’s continued exploration of doubling and rupture, and hence to the division and subdivision of time that is visualized in the clock works.
Carsten Höller, Giant Triple Mushroom, 2023, installation view, Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris © Carsten Höller. Photo: Thomas Lannes
As part of Art Basel Paris’s public programming, Gagosian presented a new large-scale sculpture by Carsten Höller at Place Vendôme. In this video, the artist sits down to discuss the genesis of the work, Giant Triple Mushroom (2024).
Philosopher Federico Campagna and artist Carsten Höller came together, on the heels of Höller’s exhibition Clocks in Paris, to consider the measurement of time, the problem with fun, and the fine line between mysticism and nihilism.
This spring, Carsten Höller launched Brutalisten, a new restaurant concept in Stockholm and the latest embodiment of his long-term culinary and artistic project called the Brutalist Kitchen. The twenty-eight-seat restaurant features a menu overseen by chef Stefan Eriksson that adheres to three classifications: “semi-brutalist” dishes (using oil or minimal ingredients), “brutalist” dishes (using salt and water), and “orthodox-brutalist” dishes (no additional ingredients). For the Quarterly, Höller speaks with Gagosian directors Serena Cattaneo Adorno and Mark Francis about this terminology, the importance of experimentation, and the fortuitous side effects of brutalist cuisine.
Daniel Birnbaum speaks with the artist about the “unsaturated” in his work.
Carsten Höller talks with Derek Blasberg about his lifelong obsession with slides, the reactions that he intends from his creations, and the concept of fun.
