A SCULPTURE, A FILM, & SIX VIDEOS

A SCULPTURE, A FILM, & SIX VIDEOS is an exhibition of a sculpture, a film and a survey of six recent video works presented in a nontraditional, temporal framework in the Zilkha Gallery.  Nestled into a custom-built atrium, Peter Fischli & David Weiss’ Son et lumière, acts as the pivot or fulcrum for the entire exhibition, the kinetic center around which everything else revolves. Acting as a counterweight, a proto-cinematic object, and a foil, the sculpture will be installed for the entire run of the exhibition and the videos will rotate out, one work projected continuously for two weeks. The video works address continuities and discontinuities in time. They connect a deep mystical time to the present tense, visualize cycles, and reach into the future for the potential it may hold for transformation. Video works are included by Renée Green, Karrabing Film Collective, Trisha Baga, Stanya Kahn, Arthur Jafa, and Charlotte Prodger.

Tacita Dean’s 16mm film The Green Ray (2001), also included in the exhibition, refers to a naturally-occurring phenomenon, a flash of green light crossing the sky after the sun has set. In the 19th century it was a widely-held Romantic belief in Europe that observing the green ray gave the viewer a heightened perception of the world and viewing the ray was indicative of a coming transformation. In her collected writings, Dean explains that “looking for the green ray became about the act of looking itself, about faith and belief in what you see.” The green ray grounds the temporal framework of the exhibition itself and the specificity of media’s relation to time, delineating difference of time in sculpture, in video, in film, in performance, in event, in exhibition.

A SCULPTURE, A FILM, & SIX VIDEOS is an exhibition amidst the greater context of a global pandemic, racial reckoning, economic crisis, and climate emergency. As our experiences of our present time are increasingly measured by their proximities to ending(s) this exhibition looks towards experiences of continuation in time. While we reimagine a way forward to what degree can we look to the form of time itself to hold the power for transformation? Due to COVID-19 the gallery is open only to the campus. All related programming will take place online through the exhibition website.

Online events
Artist Talk: Stanya Kahn
Thursday, October 22, 8pm EST. RSVP here.
Stanya Kahn will discuss her practice and Stand in the Stream (2011–17) which is included in the exhibition and available for a limited online screening.

‘Untitled: darkness’ (2020) performance by Tosh Basco (aka boychild) 
Saturday, November 7, 2 pm EST. RSVP here.
Part of Tosh Basco’s Untitled series, this new work is made in conversation with the filmic technologies of the camera, screens and sight. The performance will be followed by a conversation with the artist and collaborator Wu Tsang.

Conversation: Collective for Radical Death Studies (CRDS) and devynn emory with Anthony Ryan Hatch
Date/time TBD. Please check our website for updates.
Join a conversation between CRDS and devynn emory, a choreographer, dance artist, acute care and hospice nurse, moderated by Anthony Ryan Hatch, Associate Professor of Science in Society at Wesleyan University.

Talk and Reading: Victoria Pitts-Taylor
Monday, November 16, 4:30pm EST. RSVP here.
Join Victoria Pitts-Taylor, Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexualities Program at Wesleyan University for a book reading and a discussion of Charlotte Prodger’s work BRIDGIT (2016).

Artist Talk: Renée Green
Thursday, November 19, 6pm EST. RSVP here.
Renée Green (‘81) will speak about her practice and Americas: Veritas (2018), included in the exhibition and  ED/HF (2018), available for limited screening online.

Artist Talk: Karrabing Film Collective
Date/time TBD. Please check our website for updates.
Members of the Karrabing Film Collective will discuss their practice with one of the founding members, author Elizabeth A. Povinelli.

Streaming online
Several video works are available for limited online screening through the exhibition website here.