In the exhibition "Being moved things around. Deferral at Hillside" artist Stephan Blumenschein (DAI, 2018) presents a new installation deriving from his research into anxiety, architecture and the extended medical gaze. The origin story of panic disorder as a medical category, which unfolded during early pharmaceutical experiments at Hillside Hospital/NY (1959-62), served him as a point of departure. What captured the artist’s imagination was the hallway of the Morris Lowenstein Pavilion in which the changed movement of a patient became visible; and the role of an anonymous nurse who’s observations were the base of a new conception of panic. Blumenschein’s interest lies here specifically with the production of (in)visibilities. Looking back in time, back at the institution, and to the back – the artist challenges what is deemed unheard and unseen. Blumenschein warmly invites us to the opening on Thursday, July 6, at Beautiful Distress from 5-9pm. On show over the summer, accompanied by a small side program - two screening events (July 23, Sept 03) and another iteration of his ongoing "We are listening to a record" series (Aug 12).
The exhibition is centered around a series of new sculptures, which incorporate different moments of his research. Inspired by a mysterious cabinet depicted in an image of a patient’s room, the works explore dynamics of ‘looking-into’ and ‘closed spaces’, alternating between promise and deferral. The works speak about the artist’s Kafka’esque experience with the current Hillside administration, the patriarchal production of absence in the archives, and his own movement through these spaces. Blumenschein thereby continuously questions the relationship between these insides and outsides without resolving it.
The artist draws from a variety of sources and is mingling a diverse set of relations: voicing archival material with his family, fusing historic and contemporary material, and relying upon employees within the institution as informants for his research. By doing so he spins a web across times and spaces looking for echoes in the reproduction of hierarchies and (in)visibilities.
Blumenschein’s show at Beautiful Distress House comprises a series of sculptures, photographs and an architectural intervention. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication and a side program featuring a series of screenings co-curated with writer and organizer Janine Armin, and an iteration of the artist’s ongoing “We are listening to a record” gatherings.
SIDE PROGRAM
July 23
Screening #1 with Ansuya Blom - "Dear..." (1998),
Aug 12
We are listening to a record #11
Sept 3
Finnisage and Screening #2 with
Milena Bonilla - "The Last Drink is for the Sun" (2022)
Felicia Broberb von Zweigberk - "Manic Depression" (2019)
Yashaswini Raghunandan & Arianna Zuanazzi - "I Invite You" (2021)
For more information see: Beautiful Distress
About Stephan Blumenschein
The exhibition is kindly supported by:
Mondrian Fund, the public fund for visual arts and heritage
Federal Ministry Austria for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport
Amsterdam Fund for the Arts