|
DNA: GARY HILL - Up Against Down - 27 Apr 2012 to 30 June 2012 Current Exhibition |
||||
|
Gary Hill, Beauty Is in the Eye, 2011
courtesy of Barbara Gladstone Gallery |
|||
|
||||
|
GARY HILL UP AGAINST DOWN PREVIEW 26 APRIL 6 - 9 PM 27 APRIL - 30 JUNE Up Against Down is the first solo exhibition in Berlin of the renowned media artist Gary Hill. Focusing on new pieces, the exhibition looks at a rare body of non-verbal works by an artist known for work that examines language/image relationships. In this exhibition, Hill’s work brings contradictory notions of physicality, emptiness and hyper reality that reside comfortably in liminal space and suspended time. Among the works included in the show are three installations shown for the first time in Berlin. Up Against Down (2008) consists of six projections of various parts of the artist’s body forcibly pressing or pushing against a seemingly infinite pure black space. The physicality of this endless struggle is reinforced by intense amplification of low frequency sine waves that are modulated by the body’s pressure and resemble a kind of primal drumming. The obscurity of the space and the lack of context strip the repetitive activity of rationale and focus on the fervent concentration and relentlessness of the effort, entrapped in futility and frustration. Isolation Tank (2010 – 2011) is a single channel video projection of entirely computer generated imagery. An object seen from afar drifts in the middle of the ocean. The camera slowly approaches it and reveals it is a lone surfboard. An emblem reminiscent of a Mahakala (a protector of Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism) almost imperceptibly morphes into another visage (perhaps a representation of the artist's face?). Suddenly a rogue wave appears from nowhere throwing a wall of water over the surfboard. The board reemerges as the camera pulls back and hovers above the scene. The sound of an unseen helicopter begins to dissipate as the view returns to the opening vantage point. The possibility of the surfer being death lingers on while the scene resumes its sublime serenity. Beauty Is in the Eye (2011) consists of an HD video and a stereo photo diptych seen through a free-standing stereoscopic viewer. The color image is of the artist in a phantasmagoric costume complete with make-up, suggesting a cross between an extraterrestrial minstrel and a joker of some kind. In one hand he holds a tray of small test tubes with flowers. The other hand is gesturing forward with a singular flower as if to make an offering. The video on the opposite wall shows people receiving the flower offerings one at a time. From darkness a single person emerges and walks towards the being to take the gift and is seen to reflect upon it in a multitude of ways. As each person touches the flower and responds to it, a complex sound of delicate electronic timbres bursts open, seemingly reflecting the flower and viewer's inter-connectedness. Visually seductive and mind teasing, this timeless “interaction” between the artist trickster and the viewer takes place in a kind of separate reality. For further information, interviews with the artist and images please contact Margarita Dorovska on +49 (0)30 285 99 652 or e: [email protected] NOTES TO EDITORS Artist‘s biography Gary Hill was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1951 and currently lives in Seattle, Washington. He has been working with sculpture and electronic media since the early 1970’s and has produced a large body of both single-channel video works and mixed media installations. His long-time work with intermedia continues to explore an array of issues ranging from the physicality of language, synesthesia and perceptual conundrums to ontological space and viewer interactivity. Gary Hill has had solo exhibitions in museums worldwide, including, among others: 2012 the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA 2010 Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo, Brazil 2009 Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2006 the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris 2005 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 2003 Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan 2001 Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany 1998 Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain 1994 Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York 1994 Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Switzerland 1993 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1992 Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1987 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA 1986 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY His work has been presented at major art forums such as Documenta (1987 and 1995), La Biennale di Venezia (1984, 1995, 2001) and the Whitney Biennial (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993). Hill’s works are part of many public collections, among which Centre Georges Pompidou, MoMA, New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid. Hill has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including: 1995 Leone d’Oro Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale 1998 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award 2000 Kurt-Schwitters-Preis DNA Auguststrasse 20 10117 Berlin [email protected] |
||||
|
||||
re-title.com
International contemporary art
SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS
SIGN UP for ARTIST MEMBERSHIP
SIGN UP for GALLERY MEMBERSHIP
Click on the map to search the directory