UNDER HYPNOSIS
Matt Mullican
“I have built a square as a device to enter, to basically create a boundary and one of the points of this good room, of this space was that I could actually in my own way compose the subject of the work as I am doing it / So I can say in the square which I created exists myself but myself in a different time, a different age, a different emotional and physical stage / So I would say we should see if it works.” - Matt Mullican in Matt Mullican Under Hypnosis - Walking back from the central station (1996)
Since the late 1970s, performances made under hypnosis have been an essential part of American-Venezuelan artist Matt Mullican's practice. For Mullican, a performance in a state of hypnosis means traveling to the imaginary; he finds in it the ideal way to put himself in imaginary situations, persons or even objects, and experience them as real.
In 1996, Mullican chose the Column Room of the Arenberg Institute in Leuven to present and record a hypnosis performance for the first time in Europe. The work was part of a series of performances “Matt Mullican Under Hypnosis” which took place at different locations in Brussels and Louvain, from April 27 through May 5, 1996. A selection of these videotaped recordings will be shown again for the first time at STUK. In them, we see Mullican's alter ego "That Person" in the STUK Exhibition Space (the former Column Room) crossing the line, walking on [his] eyes, getting cold, and making drawings like a 4 and a 55 year old. In Brussels we witness "That Person" getting thirsty, looking for a picture, entering a picture, walking back from the central station, and finally feeling frustrated stuck between two mirrors.
1996 – video (PAL, colour, sound):
CROSSING THE LINE / WALKING ON MY EYES: 5’11”
GETTING COLD: 5’51”
MAKING A DRAWING AS A 4 YEAR OLD: 10’15”
MAKING A DRAWING AT 55 YEARS OLD: 26’06”
LOOKING FOR A PICTURE / ENTERING A PICTURE: 22’33”
WALKING BACK FROM THE CENTRAL STATION / TWO MIRRORS : 20’15”
THIRSTY, ENJOYING 3 BOTTLES OF WATER: 11’40”
Courtesy of the artist. Collectie Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
Matt Mullican
°1951, Santa Monica, California, United States
Matt Mullican is an American-Venezuelan artist and son of artists Lee Mullican and Luchita Hurtado. His work is concerned with systems of knowledge, meaning, language, and signification. Mullican also works with the relationship between perception and reality, between the ability to see something and the ability to represent it. Since the 1970s, Mullican has been known for his performances done while under hypnosis, through which he channels an alter ego known as 'That Person', who displays extreme and erratic behavior. Mullican's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Haus Der Kunst, Munich; the National Galerie, Berlin; the Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and The Museum of Modern Art, NY. Mullican has taught and lectured at Columbia University, The School of Visual Arts, New York, The Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, The London Institute, Chelsea College of Art and Design, England and Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, amongst several others. He is represented a.o. by Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Brooke Alexander Gallery, Peter Freeman, Inc. and Tracy Williams, LTD., Mai 36 Galerie, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Galerie Johann Widauer, Peter Freeman Inc., ProjecteSD, and Galerie Micheline Szwajcer. He lives and works in Los Angeles and Berlin.