Hanna Haaslahti’s installation takes over the Ionic Temple in Chiswick House Gardens

In her new installation, the winner of the Historic category of Sculpture Shock 2015, Hanna Haaslahti will develop a site-specific sculptural intervention for the Ionic Temple in the Gardens of Chiswick House. Haaslahti wants to question the fabric of history and to create strong contrasts between the solidity of the old and the instability of material and informative, digital era. Haaslahti makes the viewer a vital part of the work. The viewer will be stripped of passivity once inside the temple and will become a source and conduit of the most ephemeral of materials, light.

Haaslahti will make the statues come alive
Haaslahti wanted the statues of the Ionic Temple to reclaim their ability to communicate power and authority through their long lost gestures. Each limb will point in a different direction almost to confuse the viewer as he/she enters the site and doesn’t know what to believe and which way to turn to. The statues are located in the Chiswick House gardens, London, designed by Lord Burlington and William Kent in 18th Century.

Light, shadow and interaction
Light, shadow and human interaction are the basic elements in Haaslahti’s artistic practice. Creating temporary relationships between people, projections and space, Haaslahti explores gestalt psychology, computer vision technology, generative graphics and 3D-sensing in the development process of interactive spaces. History often covers more than reveals and is often manipulated and multi-layered.

Exhibition 3.–6.12.2015
THE IONIC TEMPLE Chiswick House Gardens London W4 2RP
private + press preview: Wed 2.12.2015 at 12–14, Chiswick House
Exhibition open: Thu–Sun 3.–6.12.2015 at 10–16, last entry at 15, free entry
www.chgt.org.uk