Movies and Video
(m)other
Jahrhundert Frauen
Amanda Palmer about motherhood
Deutschland bleiche Mutter
Candice Breitz - Video "Mother"
http://www.candicebreitz.net/
https://vimeo.com/74745827
About the Video-Installation
This September, Sonnabend Gallery presents four recent works by Candice Breitz. Breitz’s approach combines a linguistic and structural critique of pop consumerism with the enthusiasm of an adoring fan, such that viewers are prompted to probe their own ambivalent positions as fans and consumers. Visitors will have the chance to experience Mother + Father, the two-part video installation that was widely acclaimed at the recent Venice Biennale. Mother + Father are a pair of agitated fugues in which the artist edits a cast of iconic actors appropriated from various silver-screen hits into a jagged, abrasive whole. Twitching alongside each other against a stark black backdrop that stretches across a semi-circular structure of six plasma screens, six Hollywood actresses passionately perform the rites of motherhood (Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep). In a second installation that mirrors the first, six equally recognizable actors go through the motions of fatherhood (Tony Danza, Dustin Hoffman, Harvey Keitel, Steve Martin, Donald Sutherland and Jon Voight). Having been digitally extracted from their respective movies, the cast members of Mother and Father are free to perform two new dramas under Breitz’s direction. The actors emerge from her mixing-desk recycled and coerced into tautly arranged compositions, flashing onto their respective screens rhythmically and obsessively. Breitz offers us parenthood as a metaphor for the relationship between the star and the fan, inviting us to reflect on the formative role that the media increasingly plays in our lives. Additionally, Sonnabend is pleased to debut two new works titled King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) and Queen (A Portrait of Madonna). In juxtaposition with Mother + Father, these multi-channel video-portraits signal the central dichotomy in Breitz’s work, a dichotomy between the ‘somebodies’ (the global icons whose images Breitz pushes to breaking point) and the ‘nobodies’ (fans and consumers of global culture, whose identifications and obsessions are a recurring subject in Breitz’s work). To make her portrait of Michael Jackson, Breitz invited sixteen Jackson enthusiasts (who responded to the ads that she placed in German newspapers and on German-language websites) to pay tribute to their idol. Each fan was given the opportunity to individually re-perform the entire Thriller album in a professional recording studio in Berlin. Displayed on sixteen vertically oriented plasma displays, King assembles these eclectic performances alongside each other in a synchronized a cappella tribute to the King of Pop. Queen brings together thirty hardcore Italian Madonna fans, whose individual re-performances of Madonna’s Immaculate Collection were captured in a recording studio in Milan. The fans are presented in a choral grid, their voices fluctuating between moments of harmony and hysteria as they sing and dance their way through the album. In the absence of any iconic representation of the stars that they claim to portray, these works imagine the star as a shifting surface that reflects the collective desires and fantasies of a fan community. Identical in their length to the albums that they cover, Breitz’s portraits bring together the experience of listening to a favorite album at home, with the longing for publicity that is inherent to the screen test. The installations belong to an ongoing series of portraits that was initiated with Legend (A Portrait of Bob Marley), a recent commission by T-B A21 Vienna. Born in Johannesburg, Candice Breitz lives and works in Berlin. She has participated in Biennales in São Paulo, Istanbul, Taipei and Venice. She has had exhibitions at the Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; FACT, Liverpool; De Appel, Amsterdam; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Modern Art Oxford; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris and the Castello di Rivoli, Turin. The publication accompanying this exhibition, with an interview between the artist and Louise Neri, has been planned in association with White Cube, London and galleria francesca kaufmann, Milan.
Natalia Iguiniz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl2mdiBwY4Y
Jahrhundert Frauen
Amanda Palmer about motherhood
Deutschland bleiche Mutter
Candice Breitz - Video "Mother"
http://www.candicebreitz.net/
https://vimeo.com/74745827
About the Video-Installation
This September, Sonnabend Gallery presents four recent works by Candice Breitz. Breitz’s approach combines a linguistic and structural critique of pop consumerism with the enthusiasm of an adoring fan, such that viewers are prompted to probe their own ambivalent positions as fans and consumers. Visitors will have the chance to experience Mother + Father, the two-part video installation that was widely acclaimed at the recent Venice Biennale. Mother + Father are a pair of agitated fugues in which the artist edits a cast of iconic actors appropriated from various silver-screen hits into a jagged, abrasive whole. Twitching alongside each other against a stark black backdrop that stretches across a semi-circular structure of six plasma screens, six Hollywood actresses passionately perform the rites of motherhood (Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep). In a second installation that mirrors the first, six equally recognizable actors go through the motions of fatherhood (Tony Danza, Dustin Hoffman, Harvey Keitel, Steve Martin, Donald Sutherland and Jon Voight). Having been digitally extracted from their respective movies, the cast members of Mother and Father are free to perform two new dramas under Breitz’s direction. The actors emerge from her mixing-desk recycled and coerced into tautly arranged compositions, flashing onto their respective screens rhythmically and obsessively. Breitz offers us parenthood as a metaphor for the relationship between the star and the fan, inviting us to reflect on the formative role that the media increasingly plays in our lives. Additionally, Sonnabend is pleased to debut two new works titled King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) and Queen (A Portrait of Madonna). In juxtaposition with Mother + Father, these multi-channel video-portraits signal the central dichotomy in Breitz’s work, a dichotomy between the ‘somebodies’ (the global icons whose images Breitz pushes to breaking point) and the ‘nobodies’ (fans and consumers of global culture, whose identifications and obsessions are a recurring subject in Breitz’s work). To make her portrait of Michael Jackson, Breitz invited sixteen Jackson enthusiasts (who responded to the ads that she placed in German newspapers and on German-language websites) to pay tribute to their idol. Each fan was given the opportunity to individually re-perform the entire Thriller album in a professional recording studio in Berlin. Displayed on sixteen vertically oriented plasma displays, King assembles these eclectic performances alongside each other in a synchronized a cappella tribute to the King of Pop. Queen brings together thirty hardcore Italian Madonna fans, whose individual re-performances of Madonna’s Immaculate Collection were captured in a recording studio in Milan. The fans are presented in a choral grid, their voices fluctuating between moments of harmony and hysteria as they sing and dance their way through the album. In the absence of any iconic representation of the stars that they claim to portray, these works imagine the star as a shifting surface that reflects the collective desires and fantasies of a fan community. Identical in their length to the albums that they cover, Breitz’s portraits bring together the experience of listening to a favorite album at home, with the longing for publicity that is inherent to the screen test. The installations belong to an ongoing series of portraits that was initiated with Legend (A Portrait of Bob Marley), a recent commission by T-B A21 Vienna. Born in Johannesburg, Candice Breitz lives and works in Berlin. She has participated in Biennales in São Paulo, Istanbul, Taipei and Venice. She has had exhibitions at the Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; FACT, Liverpool; De Appel, Amsterdam; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Modern Art Oxford; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris and the Castello di Rivoli, Turin. The publication accompanying this exhibition, with an interview between the artist and Louise Neri, has been planned in association with White Cube, London and galleria francesca kaufmann, Milan.
Natalia Iguiniz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl2mdiBwY4Y