David Hartman Documents Iris Häussler’s Artistic Process in New Short Film
This past summer, we were thrilled to welcome the Toronto-based conceptual artist Iris Häussler as the Tom Thomson Shack Artist-in-Residence.
During her residency, Häussler created Divided Heavens, an imaginative, deeply atmospheric transformation of the historic Thomson Shack. The installation was built around the invented lives of German-born twins Kurt and Carl Pfister, separated after the Second World War and unaware of each other’s existence. Though divided by fate, the brothers share an uncanny, lifelong connection rooted in their fascination with—and compassion for—migratory birds.
Inside the shack, Häussler brought their intertwined stories to life through engraved mirrors and glass, delicate paper bird mobiles, illuminated globes mapping migration routes, and carefully crafted personal artifacts. Together, these elements formed a quiet, contemplative environment that reflected on migration, vulnerability, memory, and our responsibility to the natural world.
Häussler’s longstanding advocacy for bird safety forms an essential part of the project. She works actively with FLAP Canada (Fatal Light Awareness Program), the country’s leading organization addressing bird collisions with buildings. Each year, an estimated 25 million migratory birds die in Canada due to window strikes—an invisible crisis that continues to escalate without coordinated conservation efforts.
Her time at the McMichael also opened the door to a new collaboration with the documentary filmmaker David Hartman. As part of our ongoing film series spotlighting contemporary Canadian artists, Hartman followed Häussler in her studio as she developed Divided Heavens, and later on the streets of downtown Toronto, where she volunteers with FLAP Canada to locate and report bird fatalities in the urban core.
The resulting short film offers a vivid portrait of Häussler’s practice—one in which storytelling, material experimentation, and environmental advocacy converge with remarkable sensitivity.
We invite you to experience this thoughtful meeting of artistry and activism.
About the Artist
Iris Häussler
Iris Häussler has a long history of exhibiting her installations in offsite and non-traditional museum spaces. Her first site-specific art installation was in the women’s restrooms at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1984. Since then, she has exhibited in basements, trailers, garages, apartments, churches, chapels, hotel rooms, stores, industrial buildings, monasteries, and historic houses. Häussler is well known for her immersive installations that often revolve around fictitious personae and their artistic legacies.
Born in Germany and trained as a conceptual artist and sculptor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Häussler has had her work exhibited internationally. She has been the recipient of the Kunstfonds, Bonn, and won the Karl Hofer Prize 1999, in Berlin. In 2010, she was invited on the Cape Farewell (UK) High Arctic Expedition. Since her immigration to Canada, she has been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Chalmers Arts Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.
Her work can be found in major national and international collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Städtische Sammlung im Lenbachhaus, Munich, the Goetz Collection, Munich, and in private collections worldwide.
About the Filmmaker
David Hartman
David Hartman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose recent work is focused on the creative process of some of Canada’s most exciting visual artists. The films take the viewer into the studios and creative worlds of the artists and offer insight into what drives their work forward. The short films feature a national scope of artists ranging from living legends to emerging talents. The films have been distributed on PBS and as in-flight entertainment on Air Canada. David works in Toronto, Canada.
Iris Häussler: Divided Heavens
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