M HKA Ensembles

Book, 21.4 x 15.6 cm, 142 p, language: English, publisher: London/Bristol: Book Works/Situations, University of the West of England, ISBN: 978 1 906012 09 0.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2024/832).

Literary synopsis

Falling into Place tells of a world after an unspecified but high-impact event that has displaced people and caused those who survived to reassess how to live their lives from then on. Referencing a dystopian poignant wake-up call, bound in an engrossing novella that offers an extraordinary insight into a rich and intriguing artistic practice.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

In recent works, Heather and Ivan Morison have explored the currency of shelter and the escape vehicle – things that can either transport you physically or mentally away from the here and now, and help avoid, or offer refuge, from future disaster. The film Dark Star (2006), and the timber structures Pleasure Island and Fantasy Island (2007), took their starting points from the American house-truck movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and the hand-built-shelters associated with the ‘back-to-the-land’ movements of the same period. These interests are continued in a series of newly commissioned sculptures and shelters. Continuing their explorations and investigations into cultures of self-sufficiency. Falling into Place brings many elements of the artist’s research together with sketches and drawings, through a narrative which is part-science fiction, part-history, part-auto-biography and part-fairytale.

Novel's website