Haze / Contemporary Arts Center
“Haze” was Vhils’ first solo exhibition in a major arts institution in the United States. Taking the material reality of Cincinnati and other US cities as a starting point, it sought to create a dialogue with other locations from around the world where Vhils worked over the years, reflecting on the nature of our contemporary urban environments, the dominant model of globalised development, and their impact on cultural contexts and identities worldwide.
Seeking to establish a subtle dialogue with the iconic building designed by renowned Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, the exhibition took over two floors of the institution – one of the first geared towards contemporary art in the US – engaging the viewer with a variety of mostly site-specific works materialised in various media, including carved wooden doors, sculptural dioramas, large-scale and small-scale hand-carved billboard pieces, immersive video installations, and carved plasterboard compositions, among others. In a world premiere, Vhils also performed one of his much celebrated works with recourse to explosives inside an arts institution.
Haze
solo exhibition
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA
21 February 2020 – 28 February 2021