The Austrian sculptor Hans Schabus has made a name for himself as a gifted spatial artist through a series of bold projects such as his boat trip through the Vienna sewage system or the overbuilding of the Austrian pavilion in Venice. For his latest work, “The Long Road from Tall Trees to Tall Houses,” he traveled forty-two days on a bike across the USA – a journey with and to himself. Hans Schabus is expanding the work by adding some location-specific components in Darmstadt. “Highnoon,” a model of a column made of beer cans from the US brand Pabst, plays on both the architect of the Kunsthalle, Theo Pabst, and the Ludwigsmonument in the center of the city. The newspaper “Darmstädter Echo” is used in a three-part work, “Echooo.” The work “Darmstädter Löschdecke” refers to the “Block Beuys” in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. Hans Schabus would not be Hans Schabus if he just left it at an exhibition of his works, for he shapes his space once again, this time with the help of a chain.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a book published in English by Revolver, which contains an SMS diary Schabus kept during his journey as well as essays by the curators Seamus Kealy (Salzburger Kunstverein) and León Krempel (Kunsthalle Darmstadt).
Opening: January 22, 2016, 5 pm; Admittance: 4:30 pm
Hans Schabus, The Long Road from Tall Trees to Tall Houses (June 22nd, 2015), 2015
© Hans Schabus and Bildrecht GmbH
Hans Schabus, Potatocity, 2015
© Hans Schabus and Bildrecht GmbH
Hans Schabus, ‹Konglomerat›, 2016, installation view, building rubble, variable size.
© Hans Schabus and Bildrecht GmbH, Photography: Kunsthalle Darmstadt/Gregor Schuster.
Installation view of the exhibition ‹Hans Schabus. The Long Road from Tall Trees to Tall Houses›.
© Hans Schabus and Bildrecht GmbH, Photography: Kunsthalle Darmstadt/Gregor Schuster.
Hans Schabus, ‹Über das Verschränken der Räume› [Detail], 2017, installation view, chain, chain tensioner, books, 135 m length.
© Hans Schabus and Bildrecht GmbH, Photography: Kunsthalle Darmstadt/Gregor Schuster.
Hans Schabus, ‹The Long Road from Tall Trees to Tall Houses (July 3rd, 2015)› [Detail], 2015, archival pigment print on paper, acid-free cardboard, museum cardboard, glass, aluminium, wood, synthetic resin paint, various fixing materials, 42-piece, each 86,2 x 65,8 x 2,6 cm (framed).
© Hans Schabus and Bildrecht GmbH, Photography: Kunsthalle Darmstadt/Gregor Schuster.