"Three New Exhibitions: AT A REMOVE, curated by William Stover; MEDIA(TION): FRAGMENTATION AND ACCELERATION curated by L. Halsey Brown; and EYE WITNESS, an installation by TATANA KELLNER "
2000-11-11 until 2000-11-20
Center for Photography at Woodstock
Woodstock, NY, USA United States of America

AT A REMOVE, curated by William Stover, presents six artists; Gerard Byrne (Dublin, Ireland), Andrea Geyer (NYC), Kate MacDonnell (Washington D.C.), Mary McIntyre (Belfast, Ireland), Robert Toedter (Massachusetts), and Jean West (Belfast, Ireland) who explore the effects of late 20th century technology (such as the internet) on how we perceive our world. Has it created fragmentation of contemporary societyNULL And what are the psychological residues it createsNULL Going against the current trend of created realities these photographers turn their cameras to the streets and everyday spaces we occupy. Through the absence of the human figure and/or the suggestion of a prior presence in a space, they reveal our cultures' (in)ability to perceive things as a whole, and the time constraints that cause us to see things only in parts. The images reflect a sense of isolation; physical, political, spiritual and psychological. These six artists struggle to maintain humanity in their work even though the human element is, at most, reduced to shadowy pixels of a surveillance image or the symbolic architecture of boardrooms or the outlines of footprints on a mat. They raise the question- are we beginning to be at a remove from the rest of the world?

Stover, an independent curator and the Curatorial Administrator and Publications Manager at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (NYC), has worked on a wide array of exhibitions including Alternative: Alternative (Brooklyn, NY), Picturing the Modern Amazon (NYC) Paul McCarthy: a retrospective (LA/ NYC), and Lee Krasner: a retrospective, opening at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (NY) this fall.

MEDIA(TION): Fragmentation and Acceleration (in conjunction with At A Remove), curated by L. Halsey Brown, takes the video, Around and About, 1980 by Gary Hill as a launch pad to examine the way in which our perception has been mediated by television. Hill’s piece marks the ‘fragmentation’ of modern perception while the videos by The Halflifers (NY/ California), Tracy Bass/Jes Benstock (London, England), and Adam Cohen (Brooklyn, NY) mark the ‘acceleration’ of our perception and psychological shifts in our sense of experience through the influence of media. These works reveal how television has changed the way we process our world; in a fragmentary way and at a faster pace.

Brown, an artist and independent curator based in NYC, works in the digital realm and teaches at The New School (NYC),and is the Education Coordinator for New Media at The New Museum for Contemporary Art (NYC). Her site-responsive works use time as a medium and have been created for alternative venues, galleries, and museums internationally. Her public projects focus on a dialogue with the viewer/audience and include the on-going Places We Are; a series of site-specific video projects in everyday spaces.

SOLO: Tatana Kellner / Eye Witness In her installation Eye Witness, Tatana Kellner (Rosendale, NY) has printed images of eyes onto handmade paper- shaped stones that cover the gallery floor and wall. She uses the eye as a metaphor for witnessing, a harbinger of truth premonitions and signifiers of beauty. Tatana Kellner was a recipient of the 2000 Photographers’ Fund Fellowship given by the CPW and will be honored along with Eric Lindbloom, the other 2000 recipient at the opening reception.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of New York

Other Important Exhibitions in New York