Iris Haeussler’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 site-specific unsettling environments in domestic dwellings, historical houses and in museums spaces.

Visitors form their own meanings and interpretations of the lives of Haeussler’s characters by piecing together the clues and content they get from the artefacts and through guided tours. Because Haeussler is interested in the fragile boundaries between fiction and reality, she often does not immediately reveal that her installations are contemporary artworks. Visitors would later refer their experience often as “walking through a novel in three dimensions”.

Born in Germany and trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Haeussler’s work is shown internationally. She was a stipendiary 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 in 2013 with a Long Term Grant for her research and explorations into new projects.

View a gallery of her work spaces over the years.

She is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery: danielfariagallery.com

Iris Haeussler Curriculum Vitae PDF (351kb) last updated 2015 08 25

Accidental self-portrait in the studio with Sophie La Rosiere, September 2013