Carsten Höller is
a very intriguing German artist who focuses on creating an experimental setting
for his exhibit goers to put themselves into. His most famous works are
slides constructed as a means of
transportation throughout the floors of the exhibit. Höller believes that
slides make almost everyone happy and yet allow for that loss of control, of
putting yourself in an experiment.
One of his slides series, Left/Right ’10 consisted of two mirrored
slides, one going left and one going right, where the viewer had to
decide. It was about the different
feeling of the slide.
Exhibit goers often have to sign a
waiver that does indicate there might be some serious consequences to his
work. Once series, Light Wall, is
a wall full of lights going on an off at a frequency of 7.8 hertz, that will more likely than not cause problems for an epileptic.
Another reoccurring theme is various of
depictions fly-agaric mushrooms. Known for producing hallucinations, these mushrooms are depicted in many different
ways throughout different series.
Höller really wants the viewer to have
the sense of losing control and discovering something about themselves due to
his artwork, which in reality is a relational concept which might scare the
viewer but also will produce interesting results should the viewer go through
with the experiment.