Gagosian presents Haunted Realism, a group exhibition featuring the work of more than thirty artists including Meleko Mokgosi, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Saville, and Tatiana Trouvé. Haunted Realism takes its title in part from hauntology, a term coined by Jacques Derrida in his 1993 book Specters of Marx to characterize what he considered the tendency of Marxism to “haunt Western society from beyond the grave.” Derrida’s concept has been explored in a broader cultural context, denoting a state of historical overlap and disjunction—“the past inside the present”—that resonates through fields ranging from anthropology and philosophy to film, electronic music, and visual art. The idea is notably explored by cultural critic Mark Fisher in his books Capitalist Realism (2009) and The Weird and the Eerie (2016).
Haunted Realism’s specific focus is a sense that the aspirations of modernity are now “lost futures”—perceptible only as ghostlike traces of their original formulations. It examines some of the ways in which artists have approached this condition by confronting the accelerated flow of images in contemporary media culture, and the proliferation of “non-places” that we increasingly inhabit. These artists’ work also conveys a feeling that the apparent documentary “truths” of realism can no longer be believed, even as wild conspiracy theories gain influential traction. Our conception of the future is now haunted, even revoked, by a volatile present. Haunted Realism situates these visions within a historical context, showing how our strange present was anticipated by earlier projects.
Featuring work by more than thirty artists, including:
Ed Ruscha, Jenny Saville, Meleko Mokgosi, Nam June Paik, Chris Burden,
Rachel Whiteread, Jim Shaw, Tatiana Trouvé, Jeff Wall, Urs Fischer, Ewa Juszkiewicz,
Albert Oehlen, Andreas Gursky, Richard Prince, Llyn Foulkes, Romuald Hazoumè, Neil Jenney, Adam McEwen, John Murphy, Cady Noland, Rammellzee and Jeff Wall.
| Duration | 09 June 2022 - 26 August 2022 |
| Times | Tuesday–Saturday 10–6 |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Gagosian Gallery (Grosvenor Hill) |
| Address | 20 Grosvenor Hill, London, W1K 3QD |
| Contact | / london@gagosian.com / www.gagosian.com |