Colorful worlds of wonder – Anne Duk Hee Jordan at Kunst Haus Wien

The Kunst Haus Wien is a must-see for international tourists, as it was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The stairs are uneven, the façade has been reworked, the roof has been greened, and works by the unconventional artist have been on display here since 1991. There are also temporary exhibitions. Most recently with a convincing focus on photography and ecology under the previous director Bettina Leidl, it is to become a “climate museum” under the new management of Gerlinde Riedl. In an interview, Riedl explained in advance that art should play an “important role in mediating the ‘coping with the climate crisis’”.

What this looks like can now be seen in Anne Duk Hee Jordan’s “The End Is Where We Start From” exhibition: On two floors, we can stroll through a kind of mini ghost train, which, however, is less spooky than amusing. Colorful printed cloths with elements of underwater worlds hang from the ceilings. Various species of snails live in an aquarium. Motion detectors trigger sound and light effects on small, mechanical objects. A huge pool of water blocks the dark main room. According to the accompanying booklet, it is a “magically flourescent underwater world” that “immerses us in the depths of an ocean” – sometimes silence is better.

According to Jordan, the small, charming objects made from found materials are endowed with “Artifical Stupidity”, in contrast to ‘Artifical Intelligence’ – an interesting, easily misunderstood explanation. In an interview, she explained that the starting point for her installation was the question of how the world was formed in prehistoric times. In other words, this is where the formation of the world is to be seen. So why all the little pieces of plankton on the colorful cloths? According to the explanations, the third floor is dedicated to the early development of our planet, with miniature brains bubbling away – a small reference to humans.

The fourth floor is supposed to be about the big picture, where visitors can lie down on a mattress landscape in the pitch dark and look up at the ceiling – where there is nothing. A boring, undesigned area. But all around, neon phytoplankton particles glow to underwater sounds and you can hear whale songs. Or were they on the lower floor? In Jordan’s wonder-water worlds, everything blurs together, there is no recognizable dramaturgy. Anyone expecting art to be a condensation of the results of intensive examination or a visually convincing realization is definitely in the wrong place here. Perhaps the breadth of Jordan’s theme is simply too complex for the languages of art?

A text by Sabine B. Vogel

More about the exhibition: ANNE DUK HEE JORDAN: The end is where we start from (Kunst Haus Wien, 11.09.24-26.01.25)