The Georgian terraced house in Brixton where Vincent van Gogh lived from 1873 to 1874 has stood vacant since 2012. Its last residents moved there in 1950, and in the 1970s played host to the media circus prompted by a local postman’s assertion that the 19 year old gallery clerk Van Gogh had lodged in the house.

Artist Saskia Olde Wolbers’ audio installation is led by her own fictional narrative set in the 1970s when the area was being considered for demolition by the Greater London Council, but due to Van Gogh’s fleeting period of residence was saved. Her story emerges from a piecing together of information gleaned from local residents, council archives and tabloid headlines telling of Van Gogh’s apparent love affair with his landlady’s daughter.

Olde Wolbers is known for her short narrative videos, filmed in model sets. For Yes, these Eyes are the Windows she has treated 87 Hackford Road as a ready-made set from which visitors will hear the house itself recall overheard conversations and events that question the mythologizing of Van Gogh and the ensuing impact on the house’s owners.

For Yes, these Eyes are the Windows, Olde Wolbers has worked with theatre director Lu Kemp and sound designer Elena Peña to develop an audio installation inside the house; music is by Daniel Pemberton.

Saskia Olde Wolbers was born in The Netherlands in 1971. She lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include Kinemacolor at M Museum Leuven, Leuven, Belgium in 2013; Ota Fine Arts in Tokyo and Singapore in 2013; Maureen Paley, London, 2012; A Shot in the Dark at the Secession, Vienna in 2011; the Goetz Collection, Munich in 2010; the Art Gallery of York University in Toronto and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2008. Recent group exhibitions include Visceral Sensation, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan, 2013; Trapping Lions in the Scottish Highlands, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, USA, 2013; Open End, Sammlung Goetz at Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2012; Monanism, Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania in 2011; Automated Cities, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego in 2009; and The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, 2008, toured to CaixaForum, Barcelona in 2011. Forthcoming projects include a solo presentation with Maureen Paley at Art Unlimited, Art Basel 2014 and Twixt Two Worlds, at Whitechapel Gallery, London, in 2014, touring to Towner Museum, Eastbourne. Olde Wolbers is represented by Maureen Paley London and Galerie Diana Stigter Amsterdam.

87 Hackford Road

London SW9 0RE United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 77131400
info@artangel.org.uk
www.artangel.org.uk

Opening hours

Wednesday - Saturday from 2pm to 9pm
Sunday from 12pm to 7pm

Admission

£9, £7 concessions

Related images
  1. Yes, these Eyes are the Windows, 2014, Saskia Olde Wolbers. An Artangel commission.01
  2. Yes, these Eyes are the Windows, 2014, Saskia Olde Wolbers. An Artangel commission. Photo by Marcus J Leith.01
  3. Yes, these Eyes are the Windows, 2014, Saskia Olde Wolbers. An Artangel commission.03
  4. Yes, these Eyes are the Windows, 2014, Saskia Olde Wolbers. An Artangel commission.04
  5. Yes, these Eyes are the Windows, 2014, Saskia Olde Wolbers. An Artangel commission. Photo by Marcus J Leith 26
  6. Yes, these Eyes are the Windows, 2014, Saskia Olde Wolbers. An Artangel commission. Photo by Marcus J Leith.18