Fire Lips
mhm, mhm, research material, 2018, edited found footage, courtesy of the
artist
In Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse, Anne Carson transposes the Greek
mythological figure Geryon into a contemporary coming-of-age story. Once a red, winged monster slain by Heracles’ arrow, Geryon
is reimagined as a queer teenager navigating questions of identity and desire. In comparing Geryon’s turbulent inner life
to volcanic activity, Carson traces the tension between repression and eruption:
Geryon sat on his bed in the hotel
room pondering about the cracks and fissures
of his inner life. It may happen
that the exit of the volcanic vent
is blocked by a plug of rock, forcing
molten matter sideways along
lateral fissures called fire lips by volcanologists.
[1]
The group exhibition Fire Lips takes this dynamic image of blockage and eruption to explore
instances of repression and the urgent expressions that circumvent them. Repression here is understood both psychologically
and politically: as the mechanism that excludes distressing ideas, feelings, and impulses from consciousness, and as forms
of oppression that constrain agency and participation in social and political life. The works gathered in the exhibition display
how bodies, voices, and desires are regulated and suppressed within societal structures, while also evoking how the repressed
forges new paths and surfaces like fissures and cracks in the dominant order of things. Johanna Thorell,
curator
With contributions by, among others, Anne Carson, VALIE EXPORT, Johanna
Gustafsson Fürst, Cole Lu, mhm, mhm, Evelyn Plaschg, Miriam
Stoney, Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor
Curated by Johanna Thorell
[1] Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red. A Novel in Verse (London: Jonathan Cape, 1998), 105.
Opening
hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 2:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
Closed on public holidays
mhm, mhm, research material, 2018, edited found footage, courtesy of the
artist
Exhibition
Opening
11. March 2026, 18:00
University Gallery of the Angewandte,
Sala Terrena, Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Staircase 7, Ground Floor, access via Schönlaterngasse 5 or Grashofgasse 3, 1010 Vienna
Duration
12. March 2026 - 06. June 2026
University Gallery of the Angewandte, Sala Terrena, Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Staircase 7, Ground Floor, access via Schönlaterngasse
5 or Grashofgasse 3, 1010 Vienna
