Haus Werk

The Bauhaus was a highly influential art and design school which emphasised the practical connection between art and life. Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany, in 1919, it was moved to Dessau in 1924 and, after relocating to Berlin, finally closed due to Nazi pressure in 1933. With a focus on manual skills, the school's strong presence in contemporary culture can be attributed in part to its many forms of aesthetic production including photography, theatre, weaving, metalwork,...
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The Bauhaus was a highly influential art and design school which emphasised the practical connection between art and life. Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany, in 1919, it was moved to Dessau in 1924 and, after relocating to Berlin, finally closed due to Nazi pressure in 1933. With a focus on manual skills, the school's strong presence in contemporary culture can be attributed in part to its many forms of aesthetic production including photography, theatre, weaving, metalwork, furniture design, architecture and graphics. Celebrating the centenary of the school in 2019, and incorporating Australian and international contemporary artists and performers, the exhibition Haus Werk affirms the relevance of methods first grounded in the Bauhaus to explore the way these concepts have new applications across different locations and times. The title refers to the way our understanding of the Bauhaus has become entwined with domestic space, with particular emphasis on the influence of the female artists who were relegated to the weaving workshop. Acknowledging the production of artwork as both a form of labour and a kind of play, the project encourages a fluid understanding of these states of production, as outlined by Bauhaus master Johannes Itten in a lecture of 1919: 'Play becomes celebration; celebration becomes work; work becomes play. Our play should become work; our work, a celebration; and our celebration, play. I regard this as the supreme excellence of the human tasks.'Artists: Peter Atkins (AUS); Anael Berkowitz (USA/ISR); Katja Brinkmann (DEU); Danica Chappell (AUS); Sarah crowEST (AUS); Elizabeth Day (AUS); Stephan Ehrenhofer (AUT); Assaf Evron (ISR/USA); Anna Farago (AUS); Robert Jacks (AUS); Paul Knight (AUS); Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky (CHE); Paul Klee (CHE); Mafalda Millies and Roya Sachs (USA/DEU); John Nixon (AUS); Laresa Kosloff (AUS); Jordan Marani (AUS); Sam Martin (AUS); Bernd Ribbeck (DEU); Jacqueline Stojanovi? (AUS); Esther Stewart (AUS) and Pallavi Sen (IND); Sebastian Stadler (CHE); Tim Tetzner (DEU); Claudia Wieser (DEU) Curated by Jane O'Neill, with Lisa Byrne and Simon LawrieCatalogue design by Roland Brauchli