Iris Häussler: Divided Heavens

By John Geoghegan and Sarah Milroy
Softcover, 74 pages
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2025

Häussler’s installation at the McMichael, Divided Heavens, invites visitors into the fictitious world of German-born twin brothers, Kurt and Carl Pfister. Separated as young children shortly after the Second World War, the twins grew up unaware of each other’s existence, while sharing a deep interest in and empathy for the fragile lives of migratory birds. Visitors are invited to explore both sides of the shack where these interconnected stories are told through glass and mirrors engraved with bird silhouettes and the imprints of bird collisions. Also displayed are a mobile of paper birds cut out from Kurt’s collection of ornithology books, two illuminated globes with handmade strings tracing major global bird migration routes, and other belongings.