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Laerke Lauta, Out of the
Desert, 2011
multi-channel video installation
Courtesy
of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
LÆRKE
LAUTA
Out of the
Desert
4 JUNE –
16 JULY 2011
Reception: June 4th, 4-7 pm
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very
pleased to announce the world premiere of a new multi-channel
video installation by Danish artist LÆRKE
LAUTA, titled Out of the Desert, on view in
Gallery I and Gallery II from June 4 through July 16,
2011.
Out of the Desert, Lauta's fifteenth video to
date and the first to be shot in the U.S., takes place in Los
Angeles during an unusually hot day, the result of intense
Santa Ana winds blowing in from the Mojave Desert. The
people and the city are running at half speed. There is also a
heightened tension - sexual, restrained, or aggresive,
expressed in subtle ways - a stillness before the storm, as if
something is about to explode. Out of the Desert
consists of a series of scenes played out between a man and a
woman on various indoor and outdoor locations in Los Angeles.
In each of the scenes there is a man and a woman, and then
there is something else happening between them, something more
abstract that takes place in their mind. In one scene you see
a woman in full figure, streched out on the grass by the
beach, playing with a lighter. On a second channel you see her
sweater, lying beside her, catching on fire. On a third
channel you see, again, a close up of her arm, however, in
this projection a man's hand is holding her wrist in a firm
grip, pressing it down into the grass.
Drawing from a northern European tradition that
ascribes romantic, spiritual, and enigmatic qualities to the
natural landscape, Lauta's video installations map internal
and external states of consciousness and are characterized by
an undertone of unresolved suspense - the latent fear of a
fatal event that is not directly revealed. The artist's
camera does not present a decisive moment but functions
instead as an instrument of premonition and doubt. Austere
light, a lush palette, and evocative sound combine in Lauta's
work to create liminal spaces that linger in memory, bringing
together feelings of exhilaration, suspense, and
danger.
Laerke Lauta was born 1974 in Denmark
and studied at the Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen
(Master of Arts, 2001), the Cooper Union, New York City
(1997), and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, The
Netherlands (1995-1997). Her works have been featured most
recently in solo exhibitions at the Saint Louis Art Museum,
St. Louis, MO, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA,
and Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA, as well as in
numerous venues throughout Europe and the Middle East,
including the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK; The
National Gallery of Denmark; The Brandts Museum, DK; Randers
Museum of Art, DK; Møstings Hus, Copenhangen; Aarhus Center
for Contemporary Art, DK; Altonaer Museum, Hamburg, Germany;
Landesgalerie/Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Linz,
Austria; 7th International Photography Gathering, Aleppo,
Syria; and ARTGENDA - 2002 Biennale for Young Artist, Hamburg,
Germany, among others. Upcoming solo exhibitions include
"Hotel Auralia" at the Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art
Center, Denmark.
LUIS DE JESUS LOS ANGELES
2525
Michigan Avenue, Suite F2
Santa Monica, CA
90404
USA
+1 310
453 7773
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