Heat Islands

Heat sensitive installation
The Big Invisible “ Kunst Haus Wien (2017)

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The exhibition “The Big Invisible” showcases new and recent works by five contemporary artists addressing key issues of our times, many deriving from unchallenged human attitudes and behaviours towards nature on a global scale. The artworks consider real-life issues, including viruses, air pollution, heat waste, nuclear radiation and an imaginary oil spill, to provide new insights into the invisible world around us.

Markus Jeschaunig’s “Heat Islands”, 2017 , (installation: photographs, thermochromatic silk print, wood, fan) is a new work inviting audience participation. It reveals the complexity of heat in urban environments at a time of rising temperature levels. One of the critical effects of climate change is an overheating of densely populated urban areas around the world. This is compounded by human decisions and behaviours, including the production of energy-inefficient buildings and the overheating and cooling of interior spaces. The result is an increasingly non-circular energy flow in cities, enabling unused energy to disperse in to the urban fabric. The installation presents three photographic prints covered with a layer of temperature sensitive colour. The audience is encouraged to warm up their surfaces by hand or with the available hairdryers. Once the surface temperature exceeds 25°C, a unique image appears. Continuing the artist’s interest in appropriating lost and unused energy in an urban environment, this work invites the visitor to draw personal Heat Islands over three views of Graz and to reflect on one’s own energy uses and behaviours.

Curated by Jade Niklai and Yasmine Ostendorf, the exhibition is an outcome of the museum’s inaugural Curator-in-Residence programme, which in early 2017 enabled the curators to conduct new research on sustainability and social practices in the arts in Austria. Works by John Gerrard (IRL/AT), Markus Hoffmann (DE), Hanna Husberg (FIN/AT), Markus Jeschaunig (AT), and Pei-Ying Lin (TW/NL)


Exhibition: 19.10.2017-14.01.2018


Photography: AintheB, Barbara Nidetzky


Link: Kunst Haus Wien – Museum Hundertwasser


Supported by: STAINER Druck, Salzburg