Doug Aitken's 'HOWL' Exhibition at Galerie Eva Presenhuber Critiques Oil's Seductive Destruction

Doug Aitken's exhibition 'HOWL' at Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zürich features a five-channel video installation set in an anonymous American oil town. The 2023 work presents a landscape dominated by pumping derricks, decaying infrastructure, and residents who appear as subjects of petroleum's influence. Interviews with townspeople reveal themes of aimlessness and limited agency, while scenes include a Maids of Petroleum contest with synchronized dance routines and self-defense demonstrations. The installation incorporates lightbox texts spelling words like 'DRAMA' and 'HOWL' alongside aluminum discs resembling shattered mirrors. Aitken's approach avoids explicit judgment, instead presenting oil's alluring visual qualities alongside its devastating human impacts. The exhibition runs through July 22, creating what the artist describes as a 'disconcertingly elegant' exploration of petroleum's role in contemporary life. The work draws indirect connections to Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem through themes of industrial consumption. Gallery spaces feature wallpapered backgrounds of natural landscapes juxtaposed with human-made elements, creating what the artist calls a 'calamitous but disconcertingly elegant whole.'