Roni Horn's solo show A Rat Surrendered Here at Château La Coste, near Aix-en-Provence, will be on view from July 1 through October 24.
In this exhibition, Horn’s use of the formal device of the paired form is related to the psychoanalytic concepts of ego-splitting and the uncanny. Psychoanalytically speaking, the figure of the double, for example the Doppelgänger in literature and film, is the uncanny harbinger of death. In Horn’s work, death is present both as a literal fact—the dead body reports in Still Water—and as a philosophical inquiry into the unknowns of the human condition. The experiential qualities of light, shadow, and reflection in Horn’s work correspond to the mutability of identity and, with it, the unknowability of death.
The show features a new two-piece glass installation, “Water Double v. 4”, along with sculptures, drawings and photography. The title of the exhibition is taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson, which Horn incorporated in an aluminum sculpture from her “Key and Cue” series (1994-1995).
