Category Archives: VIDEO

MICHAEL CLARK — COSMIC DANCER

I never really had a plan, except to express myself as purely as possible… I still make work on my own body first, as I always have. I can only understand it from the inside. — Michael Clark

MICHAEL CLARK—COSMIC DANCER, recently at the Barbican, was the first comprehensive retrospective of the British dance artist. Interrupted by the pandemic shutdowns, the exhibition lives on in the catalog, edited by Florence Ostende.

Bringing together materials from his choreographic work and collaborations with artists—including Elizabeth Peyton, Silke Otto-Knapp, Sarah Lucas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Leigh Bowery, Peter Doig, Cerith Wyn Evans, and Duncan Campbell—the book is a beautiful complement to MICHAEL CLARK, a 2011 monograph edited by Suzanne Cotter and Robert Violette.

See link below for details.

MICHAEL CLARK—COSMIC DANCER

Edited by Florence Ostende.

Prestel Publishing

From top: Charles Atlas, Hail the New Puritan (1986), Michael Clark, stills, 16mm film transferred to video, image courtesy and © Charles Atlas and Luhring Augustine; Michael Clark and Company, I Am Curious, Orange, 1988, photograph by Richard Haughton, image courtesy and © the artists and the photographer; Michael Clark, Before and After: The Fall, 2001, in Berlin, Lorena Randi and Victoria Insole, photograph by Andrea Stappert, image courtesy and © the artists and photographer; Clark during the filming of Hail the New Puritan, photograph by Alexander James, image courtesy and © the artists and the photographer; Wolfgang Tillmans, man with clouds, 1998, image courtesy and © the artist, Galerie Buchholz, Maureen Paley, and David Zwirner; Elizabeth Peyton, Michael Clark, 2009, image courtesy and © the artist and Sadie Coles HQ; Silke Otto-Knapp, Group (Formation), 2020, watercolor, image courtesy and © the artist, Galerie Buchholz, and Greengrassi; Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer (2020), edited by Florence Ostende, exhibition catalog cover image—Clark, Mmm, photograph by Hugo Glendinning—courtesy and © the artist, the photographer, the Barbican, and Prestel Publishing; Leigh Bowery and Rachel Auburn in Hail the New Puritan; Clark at the opening of Derek Jarman’s 1984 exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, photograph by Steve Pyke; Hail the New Puritan, courtesy and © Atlas and Luhring Augustine; Ellen van Schuylenburch and Clark in Hail the New Puritan, photograph by Haughton. Images courtesy and © the artists, the photographers, and the Barbican.

BARBARA LONDON IN CONVERSATION

Barbara London—author of Video Art: The First Fifty Years, and founder of the video-media program at MoMA—will discuss her curatorial practice and forthcoming traveling exhibition Seeing Sound.

See link below to register for the online talk.

CURATOR’S PERSPECTIVE—BARBARA LONDON

Independent Curators International

Tuesday, April 6.

1 pm on the West Coast, 4 pm East Coast.

From top: Barbara London, courtesy and © London and Independent Curators International; London, Video Art: The First Fifty Years (2020), cover image courtesy and © Phaidon; Yuko Mohri, You Locked Me Up in a Grave, You Owe Me at Least the Peace of a Grave, 2018, installation view Childhood: Another Banana Day for the Dream-Fish, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2018, image © Yuko Mohri, courtesy of the artist and Project Fulfill Art Space, Mother’s Tankstation; Juan Cortés, Supralunar, 2018, custom-built mechanisms in perspex (dimensions variable), Arduino, LED lights, custom-built speakers, 4 channel sound, installation view, image © Juan Cortés, courtesy of the artist.

TRINH T. MINH-HA — FILMS

TRINH T. MINH-HA—FILMS, the artist’s first institutional exhibition in Asia and the final presentation at NTU CCA Singapore’s current space, is on view through the end of the month.

Featuring six of her films—Forgetting Vietnam (2015), Night Passage (2004), The Fourth Dimension (2001), A Tale of Love (1995), Shoot for the Contents (1991), and the new work What about China? (Part I of II, 2020–21)—the show is complemented by the adjoining exhibition Trinh T. Minh-ha—Writings.

TRINH T. MINH-HA—FILMS is curated by Ute Meta Bauer. See link below for details.

TRINH T. MINH-HA—FILMS

Through February 28.

Nanyang Technological University

Centre for Contemporary Art

Block 43 Malan Road, Singapore.

Trinh T. Minh-ha, Films, Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art, October 17, 2020–February 28, 2021. Images © Trinh T. Minh-ha, courtesy of the artist.

CECILIA VICUÑA

What’s happening in Chile (and in Hong Kong, Ecuador, etc.) is truly terrifying, and it may be a preview of what awaits people around the world, unless we wake up fast to defend our democratic rights! The art community will be affected fully by what happens to the whole of society, during and after an uprising of this order.

The beauty of this movement is that it feels as an awakening expressed in joyful and peaceful massive protests emerging in every corner. They respond to the hidden pain under the monstrous inequity of the system (Chile has the biggest disparity between rich and poor in the world). The people have named it “Chile despertó.” (Chile awoke). Yet, the President has declared an unconstitutional “State of exception” that suspends rights and floods the streets with armed soldiers and [is] unleashing a new form of state violence, illegal detentions, and shootings. The number of people dead is growing, and so far there is no accountability. It all comes down to the circulation of information: the media controlled by the private sector only shows vandalism, to spread fear. But the people are posting counter images: multiple video clips on the Internet that open the question: is this vandalism a “set up”? You see what looks like undercover policemen descending from fancy cars, setting banks on fire. You see crowds shouting: “the police are burning the subway stations.” So, this is beyond fake news, it is faking reality, in order to exert control.

What can art, and the art world, do in Chile and beyond? Spread awareness of the violence that distorts information, language, and images, the “tools” of our trade. The art world can stand for transparency to empower our ability to discern purpose and intent. Otherwise the mad destruction of the land and people’s rights, along with the right to question what is true as it is happening in Chile, will continue to spread like wildfire to all nations.Cecilia Vicuña

This week at the Wattis Institute, Vicuña presents three of her short films—El veroir comenzó/Seehearing began, Rito por el Mapocho, and the video poem Word-Snakes.

The event includes an online conversation with Vicuña and Daniel Borzutzky. See link below for details.

CECILIA VICUÑA and DANIEL BORZUTZKY—SCREENING and CONVERSATION

Wattis Institute

Thursday, February 11.

5 pm on the West Coast, 8 pm East Coast.

From top: Cecilia Vicuña, photograph by Jane England; Vicuña film still; Vicuña, Lava Quipu, 2020, multimedia performance, photograph courtesy of Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; Vicuña film still; Cecilia Vicuña, Memoria Chilena. Images © Cecilia Vicuña, courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin.

SHIRIN NESHAT — LAND OF DREAMS

Gladstone Gallery presents LAND OF DREAMS, a new body of work by Shirin Neshat.

Comprised of more than 100 photographs and a two-channel film installation, LAND OF DREAMS marks a significant visual and conceptual shift for the artist, who has turned her lens to the landscape and people of the American West. For this exhibition, Neshat will present the entire collection of photographs from this series as well as both films, which will be complemented by an online viewing room and virtual screenings throughout the show’s run.*

See link below for details.

SHIRIN NESHAT—LAND OF DREAMS*

Through February 27, by appointment.

Gladstone Gallery

515 West 24th Street, New York City.

See The Future of Art Acccording to Shirin Neshat.

Shirin Neshat, Land of Dreams, Gladstone Gallery, January 16, 2021–February 27, 2021. Images © Shirin Neshat, courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery.