Stand still like the hummingbird

This exhibition takes its title from a collection of short stories and essays by American writer Henry Miller, published in 1962. Known equally for his mysticism and dark humor, Miller proposed the idea of "flying backwards, standing still like a hummingbird" as a lighthearted antidote to the frantic pace of modern society.

In borrowing Miller's title, the exhibition also embraces the paradox at its heart: the hummingbird, of course, only appears inert because we cannot visually process its wing beat quickly enough. Hubert has gathered a careful selection of paintings, sculptures, and videos by artists who engage with contradictions, impossibilities, and the absurd. They also share a concern with understated gestures and formal restraint, which finds its historical starting point in the exhibition with Marcel Duchamp's Comb (1916/1964). Along with the artist's other readymades from the early twentieth century, the gray steel comb signaled a dry, deadpan aesthetic, which came to influence a century of art-making. The works in the show are subtle iterations of this lineage, their matter-of-factness alternating between the poetic, funny, and unnerving.

Artists included in the show: Tomma Abts, Francis Alÿs, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Carol Bove, Marcel Duchamp, Morgan Fisher, Robert Gober, Rodney Graham, On Kawara, Ruth Laskey, Sherrie Levine, Gordon Matta-Clark, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Cady Noland, Jim Nutt, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, Alan Uglow, Christopher Williams, Mason Williams, and Martha Wilson.

Stand still like the hummingbird
Kurator: Bellatrix Hubert

Künstler: Tomma Abts, Francis Alÿs, Bernd und Hilla Becher, Carol Bove, Marcel Duchamp, Morgan Fisher, Robert Gober, Rodney Graham, On Kawara, Ruth Laskey, Sherrie Levine, Gordon Matta-Clark, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Cady Noland, Jim Nutt, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, Alan Uglow, Christopher Williams, Mason Williams, Martha Wilson