LOOK INTO MY OWL

Kate Gilmore is showing four videos at Smith-Stewart. Three were created this year and the fourth was made from a site specific performance in the gallery.

Gilmore sets the stage for her temerarious performances and lets the camera roll as the action occurs in one take. The work is centered on ideas of breaking down barriers that either confine or support. Denouement occurs through the search for freedom along the path to self destruction.

Each performance is highlighted with wardrobe choices that are at odds with the violent behavior. The artist wears construction yellow high heels in “Between a Hard Place” (below) and proceeds to use them to kick large holes through five layers of gray drywall. Gilmore continues through each wall along a twenty four foot corridor until she exposes a final surface that has been painted yellow to match the heels.

Be sure to head over to Kate Gilmore’s website to watch clips from her videos.

Kate Gilmore
21 November 2008 – 18 January 2009
Smith-Stewart
NYC

All 7354 cubic meters of atrium at the Museum of Modern Art has been taken over by Pipilotti Rist. “Pour Out Your Body (7354 Cubic Meters)” is a site specific video installation that includes large scale projections, architectural elements and a lounging area modeled after the human eye.

The high definition video projection is 25 feet tall by 200 feet wide and covers the existing walls. Large curtains have been installed to block out the natural light normally available to the atrium. The circular lounge area houses the speakers for the accompanying soundtrack. The sound space created by the placement of the speakers draws the viewer to a place of comfort where Rist encourages visitor involvement by “taking off their shoes, lying on the round sofa or on the carpeted floor, or singing or dancing around freely.”

The ambient light produced by the projection changes the color scheme of the entire installation to mirror the video content. The overall sensation is reminiscent of a science fiction utopia where something sinister lurks behind the curtain. In this case the wizard is Pipilotti Rist and the utopia is genuine with hidden motives of joy, lust and a verve for being alive in the present on this planet.

The cast of characters on stage in the slow motion seven channel video are one human, one pig, some earthworms and two snails. The footage itself was collected from a feature length narrative project that the artist considers the novel to this poem. That is exciting. We will keep you posted on this effort due to be released in 2009.

Enjoy the following video where Pipilotti Rist discusses this important installation. There are also two more videos covering this exhibit on the MoMA Youtube channel.

Pipilotti Rist
Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)
19 November 2008 – 2 February 2009
Museum of Modern Art
NYC

More video stills after the jump.
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The multimedia works of Chris Larson are on view at Magnus Müller. “Deep North” accommodates sculpture, photography, drawings and video all produced with this frozen house at the point of focus.

The house itself is a work of art that visitors can experience through many media in the warm confines of the gallery space. The photographs of the frozen dwelling show a place that was abandoned in a hurry, the former inhabitants left most of their treasured items behind. The feeling is that the space has been frozen in time.

At the center of the home is a large untitled sculpture that has been transported to the gallery for the exhibit. “Deep North” the video shows this wooden machine in use by three neutrally clothed women. They appear to be operating the sculpture in order to manipulate cylinders of ice from one end of the house to the other. No object or action in “Deep North” is left to chance while the motives and desires of this exhibit remain delightfully ambiguous.

Chris Larson
Deep North
25 October 2008 – 17 January 2009
Galerie Magnus Müller
Berlin

Banksy has gone big for his first solo exhibit in NYC. The “Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill” is a bizarre menagerie of the consumed and the consumables. Guests to the installation are treated to animatronics designed to disturb and delight. From cavorting fish sticks to a stunned looking primate enjoying discovery channel monkey porn, it’s all going on in the village.

There are several videos up at the website for the show. This encounter with a leopard is my favorite.

Banksy
The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill
Open 10am – 12am daily through 31 October 2008
89 Seventh Avenue
NYC

Packard Jennings produced this amazing pamphlet. There are eight pages depicting the imagined downfall of a shopping mall. I first became enchanted with his “Business Reply” illustrations via orphaned images on a discussion board a couple of years back. After an exhaustive search I still could not find the identity of the artist… until now. Packard Jennings, see his site, enjoy the anarchy.

Jennings spent a day at the mall leaving his pamphlets in odd places for the unsuspecting shopper. His actions led to a 24 hour banishment from the mall. Here’s the video.

The projection of video has so much impact when compared to witnessing the same work on a monitor. The scale forces the eye to move, this in turn activates the mind. Jennifer Steinkamp has placed her latest projections at Lehmann Maupin in an effort to rouse the cerebellum.

“Daisy Bell” is comprised of a cataract of poisonous flowers descending the gallery walls. In the natural world outside of the human condition bright colors are feared and certainly avoided. It is the juxtaposition of beauty and danger that lends power to this work.

“Left Clavicle” is also included in the exhibit. Head over to the website of Lehmann Maupin to see this piece in motion.

Jennifer Steinkamp
Daisy Bell
7 September – 1 November 2008
Lehmann Maupin
NYC

The Fine Art Society in London has opened a two week viewing of the installations of Doug Foster. “Only Human” delves into human need and desire to be needed. Often calling attention to the other, these pieces evoke a whole arrived at through the power of duality.

In “Breather”, the audience is invited to look through two sets of peep holes set in a rusty steel cabinet. The upper view port shows a breathless woman in water up to the neck. She fills her lungs and dips below the surface calling attention to the lower set of optics that offer a scene in which the woman now completely submerged shares her breath with a man in the form of a kiss. It’s the kind of work that shows some of the possibilities of video installation.

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