A humongous whirling fungus mobile entertains vistors at the art playground that is Carsten Höller‘s Hayward Gallery retrospective, Carsten Höller: Decision. One romp around his Flying Mushrooms—an interactive, kinetic update to the vibrant plantlife that has graced his work since 1994—gets the blood pumping before a night spent on a laser-guided robotic bed. Metal branches support the titular caps as visitors push them in circles around tree-like formation, spinning the vertically split, half upside-down, and half right-side-up Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) mushrooms like propellers. “It’s about making them fly really—they will dance around in space,” Höller says in the exhibition catalogue. This acts as a reward for making through the dark, winding Decision Corridor, which Höller lightly calls a “punishment”—but nothing that a few giant spores can’t solve.
Flying Mushrooms appears alongside Höller’s signature works like Isometric Slides and Flying Machine, which you can check out in the videos below.
Videos by VICE
Carsten Höller, Flying Mushrooms, 2015 © Carsten Höller. Installation View Carsten Höller l Decision, Hayward Gallery, London 2015. Courtesy of the artist, Photo © Linda Nylind
Carsten Höller, Flying Mushrooms, 2015 © Carsten Höller. Installation View Carsten Höller l Decision, Hayward Gallery, London 2015. Courtesy of the artist, Photo © Linda Nylind
Carsten Höller, Flying Mushrooms, 2015 © Carsten Höller. Installation View Carsten Höller l Decision, Hayward Gallery, London 2015. Courtesy of the artist, Photo © Linda Nylind
Carsten Höller: Decision shows at London’s Hayward Gallery through September 6, 2015. Visit Artsy for more of Carsten Höller’s work. Carsten Höller: Decision is published by Hayward Publishing. Special exhibition price £20.
Related:
Slumber Party at a Gallery on Laser-Guided Robotic Beds
Carsten Höller Installed A Giant Playground Inside Frieze London
Carsten Höller Experiments On Visitors At The New Museum
Giant Slides Return to London for Carsten Höller’s Retrospective
