September - October 2013

Karen Russo at the Barbican Art Centre

Karen Russo: The Mole Man

The Mole Man, 2008, by London-based Israeli artist Karen Russo is a fascinating photographic record stemming from her research into the psycho-geography of underground environments in London. It comprises a series of photographs and text in response to her investigation into the compulsion of 77 year-old William Lyttle, a Hackney resident fined £100,000 for digging functionless tunnels under his house for over 40 years, and who, until his death, defended his right to dig.


Going Underground with Karen Russo - Tue 1 Oct 6.15pm, Cinema 3
+ ScreenTalk with Karen Russo and independent curator Tom Morton

An evening of film with Karen Russo complementing her installation The Mole Man in the cinema foyer. For Economy of Excess (2005), Russo used a small robot camera, conventionally used to locate blockages, to explore the subterranean parallel universe of an Essex sewer system. Her 2009 film Target: 090313 977 explores the application of Remote Viewing – the psychic ability to see and describe remote geographical locations, or ‘targets’ – developed by the CIA during the Cold War for intelligence-gathering purposes. Her latest film, Externsteine (2012), explores the relationship of various cults – from neo-Pagans, New Agers and neo-Nazis – to the mysterious Externsteine rock formations in northern Germany.

For bookings: http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/event-detail.asp?ID=15218