Peter Simon Mühlhäußer

Peter Simon Mühlhäußer


Peter Simon Mühlhäußer was born October 18th, 1982. He currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

In 2009 Mühlhäußer received his MFA from the New York Academy of Art. He earned two significant awards and graduated with the honor of Cum Laude. The awards included the Walter Erlbacher Award, complimenting his understanding and execution of anatomy, and the 2009/10 Fellowship Award, offering him a 1-year extended study and exhibition at the New York Academy of Art.

Mühlhäußer recieved the Charlatan Ink Prize 2011.

Boys-Movie HD, Peter Simon Mühlhäußer, Accesso Galleria, Piazza Duomo Pietrasanta, Italy from Peter Simon Mühlhäußer on Vimeo. Boys explores the relationship between environment and the development of young individuals within a specific societal context. Employing stereotypical poses related to religion, culture, and social development, the whole series assumes an exaggerated and ironic character. One culture's physicality cross references another's societal failure, and familiar conventions of pose and gesture are recognizable, yet challenged by each subject's cultural physique. History and the contemporary collide. What is usually predictable is presented here in a revolving manner, defying any categorical imposition.Although each of the six boys bears his own cultural trappings, an essential physicality unites them. In the drama of their incipient motion, they appear as toys frozen in action. However the juvenile imagination they evoke reminds us of their vulnerability. Their flesh looks plush and sensitive, their nudity triggering a desire to clothe them. Ironically, in the midst of this youthful playground there are no smiles or signs of laughter. The boys appear possessed, almost by some sort of “wind-up” mechanism set at the controlled speed of an operator. They are not autonomous beings but actors, and impart the uneasy sense of having been programmed or invaded.These alien boys glitter with paradoxes, beginning with the suppleness of warm flesh rendered in cold aluminum. They are innocent yet threatening, at an age of purity yet absolutely corrupt. Although fashioned with delicacy, they are hard-nosed, brawny, and demanding of attention with their hypnotic physiques. At the very core of this series is a provocative realism. This does not serve as a visual handout, but rather as an extra layer for viewers willing to take the time to read each sculpture. These boys represent the potential future of the world, as well as the possible weapons of its destruction.The main figure in this group of young boys is named ?. He stands guarded, peering out sharply from his downturned head. Not yet given an identity, he stands within the treasure box in which he was delivered. He is without culture or region, and defiant of the preciousness his delivery connotes.? faces a group of five other boys, who form a crescent-like-band around him. He is the only static figure of the 6, and holds the most dismal expression. ? is isolated from his peers and reviews their clear identities bitterly. Confused and displaced, he is determined to invent a character.Gwandoya emanates the energy of restless power-seeking. At first notice, he is just a harmless child playing out the role of a marching soldier. His name translates from Ugandan to mean "met with unhappiness." His African physiognomy recalls the image of children soldiers, with a disconcerting pose complicated by the precarious stance at the edge of a weapons box.Although Jaidee’s genitals are concealed from the front, he is the most exploited of all the boys. Perched atop a stack of pornography, his name translates in Thai to “well-behaved and modest”. Primping and passive, Jaidee teases the viewer with a pose resembling a bathing Venus. Pretending to bear female genitalia, he objectifies himself to please and gain acceptance. The dynamic forms and volumes adorning the hefty Willhelm emanate in all directions. After William the Conqueror, his name translates to "determined protector." Poised on a baroque-inspired chair, young Willhelm assumes a sumo wrestler’s stance, against no visible opponent. Exhibiting the idea of over-abundance and greed, “Willhelm” reminds viewers of the inherent fat prosperity of Western Culture, and how it effects its youth. With gold volute armrests, “Willhelm” towers above, gluttonously waiting to bout for the ring.The cruelty of religious misguidance is depicted in the representation of Jihad, Arabic for “struggle”. His faux crucifixion stance recalls a long history of fear and guilt. Elevating himself on a well-worn butcher’s block, he is lead without question to slaughter. Jihad’s face is tired and programmed to withhold fear.The sixth boy, Ji, performs as an Asian contortionist who appears on the brink of discomfort. His name means “discipline”, which he will need to fit snuggly within a dictated social mold. Balancing atop a shipping crate, Ji joins his contemporaries who initiate their young lives as working nomads for a politically unbalanced regime.These small characters are not only precious beings, but also valuable information recording units. They are guiltless actors on a stage, lacking full awareness and rationale. They are programmable and require observable models for their development. The boys clamber over their found objects with the boyish urge to exceed their actual size, and venture to prove it by overcoming another object’s pinnacle.

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