Brasenose College is delighted to welcome Dr Ian Kiaer as a new Tutorial Fellow in Fine Art. Ian will also be taking up an Associate Professor post at the Ruskin School of Art.
Ian makes fragile installations involving groupings of architectural models, untouched or slightly modified found objects, and two-dimensional work to create fragmented narratives. These works are prompted by the ideas of utopian thinkers, architects, and artists from various periods of history whose common concern has been their resistance and critique of dominant ideologies – while providing possible alternatives for thought. Kiaer’s installations often operate as projects or proposals and continue to employ the fragment as a means of questioning notions of totality and permanence.
Ian’s doctoral thesis was entitled Endless House: Models of Thought for Dwelling. He researched the question of the house as model of thought, looking in particular at Curzio Malaparte’s Casa Malaparte, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Kundmangasse, Konstantin Melnikov’s Cylindrical House Studio, and Frederick Kiesler’s unbuilt notion of the ‘Endless House’. Since then, he has become interested in thinking about how the model can inform an understanding of painting as a ‘minor form’, where notions such as tone and timbre operate on the fringes of a potentially redundant practice.
Ian has exhibited internationally since 2000, with solo exhibitions at institutions including Tate Britain, London; Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin; Kunstverein München, Munich; and Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice. He has also exhibited at the Venice Biennale (50th), Istanbul Biennale (10th), Berlin Biennale (4th), Lyon Bienniale (10th) and Manifesta 3.
Commenting on his appointment, Ian said: "I'm looking forward very much to being part of the Brasenose community and working with its students, finding out their interests and reasons for studying here that we might together participate in some of the current conversations in contemporary art and further develop our relationship to thinking and making."
Ian joins Brasenose College and the Ruskin having previously taught at the Royal College of Art in London.
Read more about Fine Art at Brasenose College.