London

Susan Hiller, Belshazzar’s Feast, 1983–84, U-matic color videotape, PAL, 20 minutes; 12 C-type photographs cut out and mounted under perspex, over 12 gouache drawings on acetate sheets, mounted on wallpaper; overall dimensions variable, each mounted photograph 20 x 16 1/4".

Susan Hiller, Belshazzar’s Feast, 1983–84, U-matic color videotape, PAL, 20 minutes; 12 C-type photographs cut out and mounted under perspex, over 12 gouache drawings on acetate sheets, mounted on wallpaper; overall dimensions variable, each mounted photograph 20 x 16 1/4".

London

Susan Hiller

Tate Britain
Millbank
February 1–May 15, 2011

Curated by Ann Gallagher

The practice developed by UK-based Susan Hiller over the past forty years has been remarkable for both its diversity of form and its consistency of focus. In her treatment of objects and phenomena drawn from cultural and natural sources, she has explored the range of those presumptions, fantasies, nightmares, and aspirations that shape our shared reality. Her work reveals a fruitful interplay between contrasting orderings in the conscious and unconscious mind, and in this career-spanning show of some forty works—including major audiovisual installations such as Belshazzar’s Feast, 1983–84, and Psi Girls, 1999—supernatural irruptions into the everyday will abound. A substantial catalogue with contributions from Yve-Alain Bois, Guy Brett, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Wilson, and the curator accompanies the show.

— Michael Archer