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Video Episodes:
62 Views
16:46:14 05/30/12
assume vivid astro focus: Masks | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 62 VIEWS | ADDED 16:46:14 05/30/12
Episode #157: Filmed in his Brooklyn studio, Eli Sudbrack—founding member of assume vivid astro focus—discusses the motivations behind the collective's use of masks during public events and installations. Originally created to enjoy personal anonymity at openings, avaf have continued to use masks in their work as a way to create equality between itself and the audience and to encourage free personal expression. Masks have had an important role in avaf's numerous projects including "assume vivid astro focus XI" at the Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz Private Collection, Miami (2004), "homocrap#1" at MOCA, Los Angeles (2005), "Super #3" at Maison des Arts de Cr
6 Views
19:48:00 05/18/12
Glenn Ligon: Installing "Warm Broad Glow II" | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 6 VIEWS | ADDED 19:48:00 05/18/12
Episode #156: Filmed at the Whitney Museum of American Art in early 2011, artist Glenn Ligon installs his twenty-foot neon artwork "Warm Broad Glow II" (2011) in the museum's front window before the opening of his mid-career retrospective "Glenn Ligon: AMERICA." With assistance from curator Scott Rothkopf and neon fabricator Matt Dilling, Ligon works to determine the best placement on the neon while battling against wind, rain, window mullions, and a view-obscuring hotdog vendor. Ligon selected the text "Negro Sunshine" from the Gertrude Stein novella "Melanctha" (1909) and has used the phrase in projects of varying media. Glenn Ligon’s paintings and sculptures examine cultural and social identity through found sources—literature, Afrocentric coloring books, photographs—to reveal the ways in which the history of slavery, the civil rights movement, and sexual politics inform our understanding of American society. Ligon harnesses the instability of his chosen mediums—whether oil crayon, silkscreen, or neon—to transforms the texts and images he quotes, making them abstract, difficult to read, and layered in meaning, much like the subject matter that he appropriates. Learn more about Glenn Ligon at: http://www.art21.org/artists/glenn-ligon CREDITS: Producer: Ian Forster. Consulting Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Clair Popkin & Joel Shapiro. Sound: Mark Mandler. Editor: Lizzie Donahue & Morgan Riles. Artwork Courtesy: Glenn Ligon. Special Thanks: Matt Dilling, Lite Brite Neon, Scott Rothkopf & Whitney Museum of American Art. Theme Music: Peter Foley.
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16:51:10 05/11/12
Marina Abramović: Embracing Fashion | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 6 VIEWS | ADDED 16:51:10 05/11/12
Episode #155: Filmed at her New York office in 2011, Marina Abramović discusses how her relationship to fashion and femininity have evolved over the course of a 40-year career. In the 1970s, Abramović relied upon stark, neutral performance uniforms that were always either "naked or dirty black or dirty white." She reached a turning point in 1988 after the dissolution of her artistic collaboration with Ulay Laysiepen, which culminated in "The Great Wall Walk" (1988). Abramović's subsequent embrace of fashion and femininity parallel her re-emergence as a solo performance artist in the 1990s and 2000s. A pioneer of performance as a visual art form, Marina Abramović uses her body as both subject and medium in performances that test physical, mental, and emotional limits—often pushing beyond them and even risking her life—in a quest for heightened consciousness, transcendence, and self-transformation. Characterized by repetitive behavior, actions of long duration, and intense public interactions, Abramović’s work engages universal themes of life and death as recurring motifs, while drawing on the artist’s personal biography and reflecting contemporary events. Learn more about Marina Abramović at: http://www.art21.org/artists/marina-abramovic CREDITS: Producer: Ian Forster. Consulting Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Charles Atlas. Camera: Paul Gibson. Sound: Mark Mandler. Editor: Lizzie Donahue & Morgan Riles. Artwork Courtesy: Marina Abramović Archives & Sean Kelly Gallery. Photography Courtesy: ELLE Serbia, Givenchy, Museum of Modern Art, Dusan Reljin, Mario Testino / Art Partner & V Magazine. Special Thanks: Danica Newell & Sidney Russell. Theme Music: Peter Foley
21 Views
18:56:56 03/30/12
William Kentridge: Meaning | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 21 VIEWS | ADDED 18:56:56 03/30/12
Episode #154: Filmed at his Johannesburg studio in 2008, William Kentridge discusses how the physical activities of cutting, tearing and collaging generate ideas and infuse his work with meaning. Rather than starting with an idea that is then executed, Kentridge relies on these freeform processes and the resulting juxtapositions to find connections and raise questions. Finished works are shown at the Annandale Galleries in Sydney, Australia. Having witnessed first-hand one of the twentieth century's most contentious struggles—the dissolution of apartheid—William Kentridge brings the ambiguity and subtlety of personal experience to public subjects most often framed in narrowly defined terms. Using film, drawing, sculpture, animation, and performance, he transmutes sobering political events into powerful poetic allegories. Aware of myriad ways in which we construct the world by looking, Kentridge often uses optical illusions to extend his drawings-in-time into three dimensions. Learn more about William Kentridge at: http://www.art21.org/artists/william-kentridge CREDITS | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Philippe Charluet & Robert Elfstrom. Sound: Ray Day. Editor: Paulo Padilha. Artwork Courtesy: William Kentridge. Special Thanks: Annandale Galleries. Video:
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17:16:27 03/16/12
Paul McCarthy: Chaos & Debauchery | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 17:16:27 03/16/12
Episode #153: Filmed in his Los Angeles studio, two of Paul McCarthy's long-time assistants — Thomas Harris and Craig McIntyre — describe the process of sculpting, molding, and fabricating the artist's large-scale works. Likening McCarthy's artistic approach to taking a "snapshot of disorder" that's then meticulously reproduced, Harris and McIntyre discuss how the formal qualities of the work dovetail with themes of chaos and debauchery. Paul McCarthy's video-taped performances and provocative multimedia installations lampoon polite society, ridicule authority, and bombard the viewer with a sensory overload of often sexually-tinged, violent imagery. With irreverent wit, McCarthy often takes aim at cherished American myths and icons—Walt Disney, the Western, and even the Modern Artist—adding a touch of malice to subjects that have been traditionally revered for their innocence or purity. Whether conflating real-world political figures with fantastical characters such as Santa Claus, or treating erotic and abject content with frivolity and charm, McCarthy's work confuses codes, mixes high and low culture, and provokes an analysis of fundamental beliefs. Learn more about Paul McCarthy at: http://www.art21.org/artists/paul-mccarthy CREDITS | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Robert Elfstrom. Sound: Doug Dunderdale. Editor: Joaquin Perez. Artwork Courtesy: Paul McCarthy. Special Thanks: Thomas Harris & Craig McIntyre. Video:
89 Views
17:46:09 03/02/12
Judy Pfaff & Ursula von Rydingsvard: "Zygmunt" | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 89 VIEWS | ADDED 17:46:09 03/02/12
Episode #152: Filmed at their respective studios in 2006, longtime friends Judy Pfaff and Ursula von Rydingsvard discuss their experience collaborating in 1992 on a large sculpture titled "Zygmunt." Commissioned by Exit Art founders Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo, "Zygmunt" was an intersection of their ideas regarding weight and space and an opportunity for Pfaff and von Rydingsvard to learn from each other. Balancing intense planning with improvisational decision-making, Judy Pfaff creates exuberant, sprawling sculptures and installations that weave landscape, architecture, and synthetic color into a tense yet organic whole. A pioneer of installation art in the 1970s, Pfaff synthesizes sculpture, painting, and architecture into dynamic environments in which space seems to expand and collapse, fluctuating between two and three dimensions. Ursula von Rydingsvard builds towering cedar structures, creating an intricate network of individual beams and sensuous, puzzle-like surfaces. While abstract at its core, von Rydingsvard's work takes visual cues from the landscape, the human body, and utilitarian objects--such as the artists collection of household vessels--and demonstrates an interest in the point where the man-made meets nature. Learn more about Judy Pfaff: http://www.art21.org/artists/judy-pfaff Learn more about Ursula von Rydingsvard: http://www.art21.org/artists/ursula-von-rydingsvard CREDITS | Producer: Ian Forster, Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Joel Shapiro. Sound: Roger Phenix. Editor: Morgan Riles. Artwork Courtesy: Exit Art, Judy Pfaff & Ursula von Rydingsvard. Archival Photography Courtesy: Exit Art & James Hamilton. Special Thanks: Audrey Christensen & Andria Morales. Video:
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17:45:59 02/17/12
Lari Pittman: Audience | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 75 VIEWS | ADDED 17:45:59 02/17/12
Episode #151: Filmed in 2010 at Lari Pittman's dual exhibitions "Orangerie" and "New Paintings" at Regen Projects, Los Angeles, the artist discusses the common misconception that his work is preplanned. Though he understands how audiences reach this conclusion, Pittman explains that his paintings result from a series of spontaneous decisions. Inspired by commercial advertising, folk art, and decorative traditions, Lari Pittman's meticulously layered paintings transform pattern and signage into luxurious scenes. Meditations on romantic love, violence, and mortality, his work demonstrates the complementary nature of beauty and suffering, pain and pleasure. In a manner both visually gripping and psychologically strange, Pittman's hallucinatory works reference myriad aesthetic styles, from Victorian silhouettes to social realist murals to Southwestern kitsch. Learn more about Lari Pittman: http://www.art21.org/artists/lari-pittman CREDITS | Producer: Ian Forster, Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Bob Elfstrom. Sound: Ray Day. Editor: Morgan Riles. Artwork Courtesy: Lari Pittman & Regen Projects. Special Thanks: Stacey Bengtson.
12 Views
16:30:48 02/03/12
Yinka Shonibare MBE: Black Artists | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 12 VIEWS | ADDED 16:30:48 02/03/12
Episode #150: As Yinka Shonibare MBE installs his 2008 solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, he discusses his experience as a black artist living and working in the United Kingdom. With few black artist role models from the previous generation to follow in the path of, Shonibare describes his motivation and strategy for getting his work into the art system. Known for using batik in costumed dioramas that explore race and colonialism, Yinka Shonibare MBE also employs painting, sculpture, photography, and film in work that disrupts and challenges our notions of cultural identity. Taking on the honorific MBE as part of his name in everyday use, Shonibare plays with the ambiguities and contradictions of his attitude toward the Establishment and its legacies of colonialism and class. In multimedia projects that reveal his passion for art history, literature, and philosophy, Shonibare provides a critical tour of Western civilization and its achievements and failures. Learn more about Yinka Shonibare MBE: http://www.art21.org/artists/yinka-shonibare-mbe CREDITS | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Philippe Charluet & Ian Serfontein. Sound: Mark Cornish & Paul Stadden. Editor: Joaquin Perez. Artwork Courtesy: Yinka Shonibare MBE. Thanks: Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
90 Views
16:43:16 01/20/12
Ursula von Rydingsvard: "Becoming an Artist" | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 90 VIEWS | ADDED 16:43:16 01/20/12
Episode #149: Filmed at her Brooklyn studio, artist Ursula von Rydingsvard recounts her family's journey from German refugee camps during WWII to their difficult early years in Connecticut. Accompanied by images from her personal archive, von Rydingsvard describes how her family's struggles still influence her studio practice today. Ursula von Rydingsvard builds towering cedar structures, creating an intricate network of individual beams and sensuous, puzzle-like surfaces. While abstract at its core, von Rydingsvard's work takes visual cues from the landscape, the human body, and utilitarian objects--such as the artists collection of household vessels--and demonstrates an interest in the point where the man-made meets nature. Learn more about Ursula von Rydingsvard at: http://www.art21.org/artists/ursula-von-rydingsvard CREDITS | Producer: Ian Forster, Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Joel Shapiro. Sound: Mark Mandler & Roger Phenix. Editor: Morgan Riles. Archival Photography Courtesy: Ursula von Rydingsvard & Marbeth. Special Thanks: Andria Morales. Video:
82 Views
16:55:43 01/06/12
Laurie Simmons: Actress Meryl Streep | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 82 VIEWS | ADDED 16:55:43 01/06/12
Filmed in 2006 at Industria Studios, New York, photographer Laurie Simmons directs scenes for her first film, “The Music of Regret” starring Meryl Streep. A longtime friend of Simmons and married to a sculptor herself, Streep conveys the difficulties and advantages of leaving a solitary studio practice to work with dozens of crew and collaborators on a motion picture. Laurie Simmons stages photographs and films with paper dolls, finger puppets, ventriloquist dummies, and costumed dancers as 'living objects', animating a dollhouse world suffused with nostalgia and colored by an adult's memories, longings, and regrets. Her work blends psychological, political and conceptual approaches to art making, transforming photography's propensity to objectify people, especially women, into a sustained critique of the medium. Learn more about Laurie Simmons at: http://www.art21.org/artists/laurie-simmons CREDITS | Producer: Ian Forster, Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Mead Hunt & Joel Shapiro. Sound: Roger Phenix & Merce Williams. Editor: Morgan Riles. Artwork Courtesy: Laurie Simmons, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn & Donald Rosenfeld. Special Thanks: Ed Lachman, Industria Studios, New York & Catherine Tatge. Video:
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17:45:54 12/16/11
An-My Lê: "Trap Rock"
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 17:45:54 12/16/11
Exclusive Episode #147: Commissioned by Dia:Beacon, artist An-My L
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20:14:17 12/02/11
Cao Fei: Building "RMB City" | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 3 VIEWS | ADDED 20:14:17 12/02/11
Episode #146: In her Beijing studio, Cao Fei discusses the inspirations, process, and challenges behind developing and building a virtual urban environment within the digital realm of Second Life for her project, "RMB City" (2007). Comparing the virtual landscape of "RMB City" to the styles of traditional Chinese brush paintings, Cao draws connections between the past and the present, Eastern and Western cultures, and aesthetic sensibilities developed from her upbringing. Cao's work reflects the fluidity of a world in which cultures have mixed and diverged in rapid evolution. Her video installations and new media works explore perception and reality in places as diverse as a Chinese factory and the virtual world of Second Life. Depictions of Chinese architecture and landscape abound in scenes of hyper-capitalistic Pearl River Delta development, in images that echo traditional Chinese painting, and in the design of her own virtual utopia, "RMB City." Fascinated by the world of Second Life, Cao Fei has created several works in which she is both participant and observer through her Second Life avatar, China Tracy, who acts as a guide, philosopher, and tourist. Cao Fei is featured in the Season 5 (2009) episode "Fantasy" of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" television series on PBS. Learn more about Cao Fei: http://www.art21.org/artists/cao-fei VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview & Translation: Phil Tinari & Xiaotong Wang. Camera & Sound: Takahisa Araki & Frank Dellario. Editor: Joaquin Phoenix. Voiceover: Clara S. Jo. Artwork Courtesy: Cao Fei.
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14:44:22 11/11/11
Paul McCarthy: "Captain Ballsack"
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 14:44:22 11/11/11
Episode #143: Filmed in his Los Angeles studio, artist Paul McCarthy and production manager Amy Baumann describe the nearly decade-long, organic process behind the sculpture "Captain Ballsack" (2001-2009) and various editions cast from the original work. Paul McCarthy's video-taped performances and provocative multimedia installations lampoon polite society, ridicule authority, and bombard the viewer with a sensory overload of often sexually-tinged, violent imagery. With irreverent wit, McCarthy often takes aim at cherished American myths and icons—Walt Disney, the Western, and even the Modern Artist—adding a touch of malice to subjects that have been traditionally revered for their innocence or purity. Whether conflating real-world political figures with fantastical characters such as Santa Claus, or treating erotic and abject content with frivolity and charm, McCarthy's work confuses codes, mixes high and low culture, and provokes an analysis of fundamental beliefs. Learn more about Paul McCarthy at: http://www.art21.org/artists/paul-mccarthy CREDITS | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Bob Elfstrom. Sound: Doug Dunderdale. Editor: Joaquin Perez. Artwork Courtesy: Paul McCarthy. Special Thanks: Amy Baumann. Video:
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14:25:06 10/17/11
Allan McCollum: "Over Ten Thousand Individual Works"
[LESS INFO] 5 VIEWS | ADDED 14:25:06 10/17/11
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15:53:36 09/09/11
Cindy Sherman: Fashion | "Exclusive" | Art21
[LESS INFO] 3 VIEWS | ADDED 15:53:36 09/09/11
Episode #143: Commissioned by French Vogue to create a fashion editorial featuring clothes from the Spanish design house Balenciaga, artist Cindy Sherman discusses the first time she used a digital camera to make pictures, ultimately creating different versions of images for the magazine and for herself. In self-reflexive photographs and films, Cindy Sherman invents myriad guises, metamorphosing from Hollywood starlet to clown to society matron. Often with the simplest of means—a camera, a wig, makeup, an outfit—Sherman fashions ambiguous but memorable characters that suggest complex lives lived out of frame. Shermans investigations have a compelling relationship to public images, from kitsch (film stills and centerfolds) to art history (Old Masters and Surrealism) to green-screen technology and the latest advances in digital photography. Learn more about Cindy Sherman at: http://www.art21.org/artists/cindy-sherman CREDITS | Producer: Ian Forster, Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Joel Shapiro. Sound: Roger Phenix. Editor: Lizzie Donahue & Paulo Padilha. Artwork Courtesy: Cindy Sherman. Video:
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22:11:38 05/13/11
Paul McCarthy: "Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement"
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 22:11:38 05/13/11
Episode #142: Artist Paul McCarthy discusses his interest in art as political theater and his sculptures as akin to amusement park rides. Featuring the works "Bang Bang Room" (1992), "Spinning Room" (2008), and "Mad House" (2008) in the exhibition "Paul McCarthy: Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement, Three Installations, Two Films" (2008) at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Paul McCarthy's video-taped performances and provocative multimedia installations lampoon polite society, ridicule authority, and bombard the viewer with a sensory overload of often sexually-tinged, violent imagery. With irreverent wit, McCarthy often takes aim at cherished American myths and icons—Walt Disney, the Western, and even the Modern Artist—adding a touch of malice to subjects that have been traditionally revered for their innocence or purity. Whether conflating real-world political figures with fantastical characters such as Santa Claus, or treating erotic and abject content with frivolity and charm, McCarthy's work confuses codes, mixes high and low culture, and provokes an analysis of fundamental beliefs. Learn more about Paul McCarthy at: http://www.art21.org/artists/paul-mccarthy CREDITS | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Bob Elfstrom & Richard Numeroff. Sound: Doug Dunderdale & Merce Williams. Editor: Joaquin Perez. Artwork Courtesy: Paul McCarthy. Special Thanks: Whitney Museum of American Art. Video:
05/30/12