Science Museum announces arrival of Suzanne Treister's "gloriously detailed" Hexen 2.0

Suzanne Treister, the British artist known for her investigations into the way governments and the rise of the internet have led to a “control society”, will present a typically complex set of works at the Science Museum in March 2012.

Hexen 2.0 features huge, intricate diagrams, photo-text works, a hand-coloured set of 78 re-imagined Tarot cards and a film presenting a séance of controlled thinking. The Orwellian show is part of the London institution’s contemporary art programme.

Described as “gloriously detailed” by the museum, Treister will examine the history of scientific and social sciences, with a particular focus on the way the US government has approached them since World War II.

She says she wants the Bridge gallery display to offer audiences a “deeper understanding of specific histories, theories and future hypotheticals of the sciences”, promising to broaden our view on “science’s interrelationships with the cultural, the political, the military and the social.”

“Treister’s elaborately constructed narratives examine a period of significant development in the recent history of technology,” suggests Hannah Redler, the museum’s Head of Arts Projects.

“They demonstrate a keenly felt thirst to unpick truths and alternative theories, in ways which simultaneously retell hidden stories and appear to create extraordinary myths.

“HEXEN 2.0 is a beautiful, compelling body of work which will captivate and amaze our visitors.”

• Runs March 7 – May 1.

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