Ellen Harvey: The Disappointed Tourist

Cat. Museum der Moderne Salzburg

Exhibition catalogue, edited by Thorsten Sadowsky
texts (German/English) by Thorsten Sadowsky, Tina Teufel, Christian Viveros-Fauné
192 p with 225 coloured illustrations
285 cm x 245 mm, softcover with flaps

ISBN 978-3-86442-343-7

(out of print)

Lost Places

In her work, New York-based British artist Ellen Harvey makes use of a traditional painterly vocab­ulary for her strategy of appropriation, whereby she methodically juxtaposes mapping, pasticcio, and institutional critique. For her first solo presentation in Austria and that publication, she has chosen the cosmoramas by Hubert Sattler at the Panorama­museum in Salzburg as inspiration for her question as formulated online: »Is there a place that you have always wanted to visit or revisit that no longer exists?« The locations suggested by the users meanwhile form a cycle of two hundred paintings; they show, for instance, postcard views of the Buddha statues of Bamiyan, which were blown up by the Taliban in 2001 at the outset of the war in Afghanistan, and of Coney Island amusement park in 1943, which burned down the following year. This is how Ellen Harvey enters into dialogue with her audience; topics such as war, racism, ecological catastrophes, and technological change arise quite naturally, even if it is just about one’s personal favorite place.

Exhibition:
Museum der Moderne Salzburg, 23/10/2021 – 13/2/2022