Bill Viola in Miami

Bill Viola, Three Women, 2008. Color High-Definition video on plasma display mounted on wall,
61 x 36.25 x 4 inches (155.5 x 92.5 x 12.7 cm). Performers: Anika, Cornelia, Helena Ballent. Photo: Kira Perov.

Well, hot damn!  Guess I'll finally be making my way down to Miami after living in Florida for almost five full years.  Apparently this will be the only U.S. venue for this particular exhibition (although, did I dream that? I'm not seeing it in the press release now).  At any rate, below is an excerpt from the press release as seen on e-flux:

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami will present a major exhibition of work by Bill Viola, recognized as one of the leading practitioners of video art. Bill Viola: Liber Insularum will begin its sole presentation in the United States at MOCA, North Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach.  The exhibition at MOCA marks the first public presentation of Viola’s new piece Ancestors, a recently completed video work that explores the layers of reality and illusion in the physical world, as well as the dimensions between and beyond it. The exhibition Bill Viola: Liber Insularum is presented as part of MOCA’s Knight Exhibition Series. It was first shown last year at Sala de Arte Contemporaneo del Gobierno de Canarias (Spain). The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Bill Viola Studio and was curated by Roc Laseca.

An iconic contemporary artist who draws from Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, Bill Viola is known for creating immersive video installations that explore such universally human subjects as birth, death, and the nature of consciousness. His exhibition is inspired by The Book of the Islands of the Archipelago, authored by Florentine ecclesiastic Cristoforo Buondelmonti in the 15th century. The works featured in Liber Insularum (The Book of Islands) use this historic text as a reference point to engage with distinctly modern themes of spiritual isolation in a 21st-century global landscape.

Works in the exhibition
Ancestors, 2012
Three Women, 2008
Addie, 2008
Darrow, 2008
Howard, 2008
Lenny, 2008
The Raft, 2004
Observance, 2002
Catherine’s Room, 2001
Four Hands, 2001
Surrender, 2001
Unspoken (Silver & Gold), 2001
Ascension, 2000
The Quintet of the Astonished, 2000
The Reflecting Pool, 1977–79

Odette England's Thrice Upon a Time

Image Credit:  Odette England (from Feature Shoot)

I keep running across this work, and I really like it.  There is something so visceral about the rips, tears, holes and stains in these negatives - the result of being pounded and drug across the landscapes they depict.  Really nicely compressing together the whole past/present conundrum.  And some of the best work I've seen that incorporates the nostalgic look, and the nostalgic feel without becoming cloying.  Good stuff.  Read an interview with the artist on Feature Shoot by clicking HERE.

Zoe Leonard Q+A

Really nice little interview with Zoe Leonard in Art in America yesterday.  She talks about her recent sun photographs and camera obscura installations.  A good read.  Click HERE to access.

Doug Aitken - Altered Earth (Part 2)

Doug Aitken, Altered Earth, 2012, Installation view

Nice review of this work in Frieze the other day.  Makes me think of the conversation we had in Video Art last week about the immersive Pipilloti Rist installation at MOMA in regard to its lush aesthetic qualities and the questions that prompted.  The review of the Aitken work concludes with the suggestion that, "...the work offers a direct sensual aesthetic. What finally saves it from the trap of postcard picturesque is the previously alluded to sense of Ballardian hyperstition – the post-apocalyptic possibility of a de-familiarized perception in each innocent act of discovery."

Read the entire review HERE.

Dive Dark Dream Slow - Book Review

Image Credit:  ADP Workshop

I came across a review of this book on Conscientious yesterday, and it is very in keeping with our closing discussion in Memory and the Photograph yesterday.  The publisher's description describes the book as follows:

"Photographer and bookseller Melissa Catanese has recently been editing the vernacular photography collection of Peter J. Cohen, helping to organize this massive curated archive (a trove of 20,000+ prints) into a series of single-theme catalogues. Along the way, she has pursued an alternate reading of the collection, drifting away from simple typology into something more personal, intuitive, and openly poetic. Her magical new artist book, Dive Dark Dream Slow, is rooted in the mystery and delight of the 'found' image and the 'snapshot' aesthetic, but pushes beneath the nostalgic surface of these pictures, re-reading them as luminous transmissions of anticipation, fear, and desire. Like an album of pop songs about a girl (or a civilization) hovering on the verge of transformation, the book cycles through overlapping themes and counter-themes—moon/ocean; violence/tenderness; innocence/experience; masks/nakedness—that sparkle with psychic longing and apocalyptic comedy."

Click HERE to order the book from The Ice Plant.
Click HERE to read the review on Conscientious.