Rachel Harrison
Voyage of the Beagle

New York artist Rachel Harrison (b. 1966) combines pop-cultural fragments with hand-made, painted forms to make inter-media sculptures, which in turn form installations. The art critic Johanna Burton has compared the multi-faceted sculptures with a stream of lava traveling along the cultural landscape, concealing, engulfing and preserving. But in spite of all their playfulness, they display references to classical themes and work categories of the 20th century, including minimalism. The artist cautiously resumes the discourse concerning space, plinth, material and the potential for contemplation of monolithic works, and brings the specifically sculptural hierarchies into question, presenting us with her version of a contemporary, self-reflexive sculpture. Alongside the most recently created photo series and sculptures named after famous men, entitled Voyage of the Beagle, the migros museum für gegenwartskunst is exhibiting the installation “Trees For the Forest” (2007) created here on site.

Curated by Heike Munder