'de vallen' in sydney

Ed and Nancy Reddin Kienholz
The Hoerengracht
(detail)
1984-88

at the Museum of Contemporary Art

KIENHOLZ
16 December 2005 - 26 February 2006

Stroll down red-lit alleyways of The Hoerengracht - a full-scale recreation of a street brothel in
Amsterdam - in the spectacular exhibition of work of Ed and Nancy Kienholz. Renowned for their
life-size environments that critique modern society and the political climate and compelled by
both a deeply-held sense of moral justice and a provocative sense of humour, their works have a
searing power that is as relevant and potent today as when their collaboration began over thirty
years ago. This impressive exhibition is direct, powerful and uncompromising.

'Kienholz' is open 16 December 2005 - 26 February 2006.
Admission free thanks to MCA Leading Sponsor Telstra.

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review at art in america

"The sound of tinny radios playing a subdued sequence of antiquated
songs seeped through the gallery like fog, and bicycles were scattered
along the pylon moorings of a canal. These were part of Ed Kienholz and
Nancy Reddin Kienholz's massive tableau titled The Hoerengracht
(1984-88) or "whore's canal." The piece is a composite of vignettes
invoking a nocturnal prowl of Amsterdam's famous red-light district. In
fact, it's an invented location, a pastiche of the real and unreal; the
title plays on the city's Herengracht or "gentleman's canal," where
today museums occupy several of the area's once-stately homes."

The Hoerengracht consists of several major blocks of architectural
fragments and, as installed, invited the casual viewer into the furtive
ambiance of secret alleys. Several of the residential stalls were
numbered in sequence, and many of the interiors were populated with
female mannequins cast from living bodies. The figures were fitted with
generic, shop-window heads adorned with outre maquillage. Framed in
glazed and hinged shadowboxes, the heads emphasized the scale of the
work and concentrated the gaze of the viewer.

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article at the guardian

When Ed Keinholz died, he was buried in his 1940 Packard, a deck of cards and a dollar in his pocket, a bottle of 1930 Italian red wine beside him, the cremated remains of his dog (who died a few days before him) on the back seat.

And prior to Hoerengracht (1983-88), which re-creates the narrow, dingy corners and alleys of Amsterdam's red light district, with greasy windows and made-up mannequin whores lounging around in their underwear. We wander through this, watching as they fix their hair, smoke, read magazines and wait. One stands in a shadowy doorway, a statue in her niche. Down to the last grim detail, it is all here.

It is largely for his re-creations of rundown bars, second world war- era brothels and the unforgettable cell of the State Hospital (based on his own experience working in a mental hospital in the 1950s) that Kienholz should be remembered.