Artists: Danai Anesiadou, Nairy Baghramian, Michael Bell-Smith, Dora Budor, Heman Chong, Mike Cooter, Brice Dellsperger, Casey Jane Ellison, GALA Committee, Mario García Torres, Mathis Gasser, Alex Israel, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Bertrand Lavier, William Leavitt, Christian Marclay, Rodrigo Matheus, Allan McCollum, Henrique Medina, Carissa Rodriguez, Cindy Sherman, Amie Siegel, Scott Stark, Thirteen Black Cats, Albert Whitlock
Exhibition title: FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY
Venue: Swiss Institute, New York, US
Date: March 3 – May 19, 2016
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Swiss Institute, New York
Danai Anesiadou, Nairy Baghramian, Michael Bell-Smith, Dora Budor, Heman Chong, Mike Cooter, Brice Dellsperger, Casey Jane Ellison, GALA Committee, Mario García Torres, Mathis Gasser, Alex Israel, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Bertrand Lavier, William Leavitt, Christian Marclay, Rodrigo Matheus, Allan McCollum, Henrique Medina, Carissa Rodriguez, Cindy Sherman, Amie Siegel, Scott Stark, Thirteen Black Cats, Albert Whitlock
Recasting the gallery as a set for dramatic scenes, FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY explores the role that art plays in narrative film and television. FADE IN features the work of 25 artists and considers a history of art as seen in classic movies, soap operas, science fiction, pornography and musicals. These works have been sourced, reproduced and created in response to artworks that have been made to appear on-screen, whether as props, set dressings, plot devices, or character cues.
The nature of the exhibition is such that sculptures, paintings and installations transition from prop to image to art object, staging an enquiry into whether these fictional depictions in mass media ultimately have greater influence in defining a collective understanding of art than art itself does. Certain preoccupations with artworks are established early on in cinematic history: the preciousness of art objects anchors their roles as plot drivers, and anxieties intensify regarding the vitality of artworks and their perceived abilities to wield power over viewers or to capture spirits. Such themes were famously explored in the 1945 film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, from which Cindy Sherman has sourced the original portrait painted for the production. Across genres, the character of the artist is habitually portrayed as a volatile, mercurial figure with license to subvert societal norms, who is thereby ridiculed, feared and revered. From many such narratives, FADE IN draws out the art objects, granting them the status only previously achieved on-screen, whilst pointing to moments in which one form of media wrangles with the power of another.
The exhibition includes new commissions from Danai Anesiadou, Michael Bell-Smith, Dora Budor, Heman Chong, Mike Cooter, Brice Dellsperger, Mathis Gasser, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Bertrand Lavier, Christian Marclay, Rodrigo Matheus, Carissa Rodriguez and Amie Siegel, as well as newly commissioned performances and public programs from Alex Israel, Casey Jane-Ellison and Thirteen Black Cats. Source material ranges widely from The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Teorema (1968) through 9 ½ Weeks (1986) and The Princess Diaries (2001), to the The Twilight Zone (1959-64), Melrose Place (1992-99) and The X-Files (1993-2002).
Allan McCollum, Lands of Shadow and Substance, 2014. Archival pigment prints. 11 of 27 from edition 2/3. Courtesy of the artist and Graphicstudio/University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
Albert Whitlock, Museen Ze Berlin Matte Painting (replica), made for Torn Curtain, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Universal Pictures, 1966. Courtesy of NBCUniversal Archives & Collections
William Leavitt, Set for The Tropics with Jaguar (from “The Tropics”) 1974. Oil on canvas, stage flat, couch, side table, plant, lamp, picture light, ashtray. Courtesy the artist and Greene Naftali
William Leavitt, The Tropics, 1974. Three black and white photographs, text. Courtesy Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles
FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY, installation view
Mike Cooter, MacGuffin: some archetypes towards a definition, 2016. Silver gelatin prints, vinyl, clay, valchromat. Incorporating the manifold quasi-object – The Maltese Falcon (Warner Brothers, 1941), set reference photograph courtesy of the USC Warner Brothers Archive; the seductive hypothesis – Laura (20th Century Fox, 1944), production stills courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the negative pole – Kiss Me Deadly (United Artists, 1955), production still courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ United Artists Collection; the revelation of history – Cat People (RKO, 1942), production still courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ RKO Stills Collection; structural definition (practical socialism) –You and Me (1938, Paramount Pictures), vinyl and King John of Serbia, depicted on horseback with raised sword and impaled panther, 2008, courtesy of the artist
Mike Cooter, MacGuffin: some archetypes towards a definition, 2016, detail. Silver gelatin prints, vinyl, clay, valchromat
Nairy Baghramian, B 75, BH, Mod. NB, Ref. CO, MM, 2012. Stainless steel, concrete, plaster, cotton thread, rubber, paper. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery
Carissa Rodriguez, La Collectioneuse, 2016. Glazed ceramics, razorblades. Courtesy of the artist and Karma International
FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY, installation view
Rodrigo Matheus, Scene Game, 2016, detail. Curtains, carpet, faux marble painting and props. Courtesy of the artist
Left: Henrique Medina, Portrait of Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray, 1945. Oil on canvas. Private collection. Right: Cindy Sherman, The Evil Twin, 2016. Hidden painting, black velvet. Courtesy of the artist
Danai Anesiadou, Vesica Piscis: Down with all States. Down with all Churches. Long live this Painter, 2016. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist
FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY, installation view
Brice Dellsperger, Background for Body Double 36, After Xanadu (1980), 2016. Acrylic wall painting by Zone90Graphics. Courtesy of Air de Paris, Paris and Team Gallery, New York
FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY, installation view
GALA Committee, In the Name of the Place, 1995-1997 (continuing through syndication), installation detail. Props inserted on the set of Melrose Place in collaboration with students, artists, critics, set decorators, producers
GALA Committee, TV Tube (after Johns) Bronze, steel. Courtesy of Schürmann Collection
GALA Committee, In the Name of the Place, 1995-1997 (continuing through syndication), installation detail. Props inserted on the set of Melrose Place in collaboration with students, artists, critics, set decorators, producers
GALA Committee, tv-phage. Cathode ray tube, deflection yoke, TV antennas. Courtesy of Mel Chin
Mathis Gasser, Grasshopper (Mountain Scene), 2015-2016. Mixed Media. Courtesy ribordy contemporary, and Hester, New York. Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Mountain Scene (1880-90), originally oil on paper. Gift of Mrs. J. Augustus Barnard, 1979. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image copyright: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY. ‘The Grasshoppers Lies Heavy’ footage taken from The Man in the High Castle (2015-2016) in collaboration with Amazon Studios, Santa Monica
Scott Stark, Noema, 1999. Videotape, color, sound. 11 minutes. Courtesy of the artist
FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY, installation view
Bertrand Lavier, Walt Disney Productions 2001-2016 (The Princess Diaries), 2016. Acrylic on canvas, balloons, darts. Courtesy the artist
Dora Budor, A woman passing on the street said, ‘a decongestant, an antihistamine, a cough suppressant, a pain reliever.’ 2016. Tempered glass, steel, polystyrene foam, aqua resin, rocks, soil, sand, epoxy resin, acrylic polymer with pigment suspension, replica of ‘Instruments for Operating on Mutant Women’ from “Dead Ringers” (1988), medical threads from surgical suture on artist’s left hand. Courtesy the artist and New Galerie, Paris
Jamian Juliano-Villani, Dillinger, 2016. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and JTT
Rodrigo Matheus, Scene Game, 2016, detail. Curtains, carpet, faux marble painting and props. Courtesy of the artist
Rodrigo Matheus, Scene Game, 2016, detail. Curtains, carpet, faux marble painting and props. Courtesy of the artist
FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY, installation view
Michael Bell-Smith, Covers, 2016. Prop magazine covers (front and back) from Earl Hayes Press, Sun Valley, CA. Courtesy of the artist and Foxy Production
Christian Marclay, Made To Be Destroyed, 2016. Video, color, stereo, sound, 16:9 ration, mp4 with an H264 codec. 24 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Christian Marclay, Made To Be Destroyed, 2016. Video, color, stereo, sound, 16:9 ration, mp4 with an H264 codec. 24 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
FADE IN: INT. ART GALLERY – DAY, installation view
Heman Chong, I WANT TO BELIEVE, 2016. Digital file, freely distributed. Courtesy of the artist and Wilkinson Gallery
Amie Siegel, 9 ½ Weeks, 2016. Color video projection, speakers, stool, chair, lamp. Courtesy of the artist and Simon Preston Gallery
Amie Siegel, Another 9 ½ Weeks, 2016. Color video screen. Courtesy of the artist and Simon Preston Gallery
