Iris Häussler’s immersive installations revolve around fictitious stories. Beginning with detailed biographies of invented characters, she builds the material evidence of their obsessive lives and works. This results in unsettling site-specific environments in domestic dwellings, historical houses or museums spaces.
Visitors form their own meanings and interpretations of the lives of Häussler’s characters by piecing together the clues that they receive from artefacts and guided tours. Because Häussler is interested in the fragile boundaries between fiction and reality, she often does not immediately reveal that her installations are contemporary artworks. Visitors often refer to their experience as “walking through a novel in three dimensions”.
Born in Germany and trained as a sculptor and conceptual artist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Häussler’s work is shown internationally. She was an awardee of the Kunstfonds, Bonn, and won the Karl Hofer Prize 1999, Berlin. In 2010 she was invited on the Cape Farewell (UK) High Arctic Expedition. Since her immigration to Canada she received grants from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. The CCA awarded her with a Long Term Grant in 2013 for her research and explorations into new mediums and projects.
Iris Häussler held a guest professorship at the Academy of Fine Art in Munich in the year 1999. She is continuously invited to give talks about her work in universities and art institutions in Canada, the USA, Germany, Sweden, Australia and the Norwegian Arctic.
Iris Häussler is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto.