| Charles
Atlas
Tornado Warning
14 November - 7 December 2008
Private View:
Thursday 13 November 6.30 - 8.30pm
Vilma Gold is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new
work by American artist Charles Atlas.
‘Tornado Warning’ will be a new five-channel video work
installed throughout the gallery space that will explore the juxtaposition
between chaos and order arising from Atlas’ early memories
of tornado warnings in his childhood town of St Louis, Missouri.
Creating two rooms that contrast in appearance, form, content and
atmosphere Atlas draws upon his past use of montage in film to create
a large scale installation that delves into the powers of perception,
triggering memory and submerging the viewer in his dream like world.
‘Plato’s Alley’, a single channel video work,
is installed within one area of the gallery, creating a formal space
inhabited by numbers and grids. The space evokes Atlas’ childhood
dreams of order, inevitability and impossible precision. ‘Institute
for Turbulence Research’, installed in the second space, is
comprised of omnidirectional projections displaying four channels
of video images - a combination of found images cut from old films
and news footage, shots of ordinary objects flying around an empty
room, swirling abstractions, distorted dancing bodies, radio waves,
and current images from the internet. Seemingly in motion the space
appears unruly, alarming, violent and relentless.
Charles Atlas is an artist and filmmaker who has worked primarily
in film and video since the mid-1970s. His pioneering media/dance
works, multi-channel video installations, feature-length documentaries
and video art works for television have often taken dance and perfomance
as their point of departure. Initiating his artistic practice within
the orbit of Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg,
Atlas has developed a highly personalized approach to collaboration
that transforms the performance documentary genre into a provocative,
strongly ironic interaction between narrative and fictional modes.
Since 2003 he has been increasingly devoted to real-time video,
sometimes as stand-alone, on-stage or live electronic improvisations.
With this new body of work Atlas uses his experience with the spontaneity
of live video and his abiding interest in precision of form to create
visually arresting and challenging new environments.
Charles Atlas was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA and lives and
works in New York City. He had a survey of his film and video work
at Tate Modern, London in 2006 and has also had several solo presentations
including Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston (2005), Magazin
4, Bregenz (2000) and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1997).
His 2002 film, ‘The Legend of Leigh Bowery’, a documentary
feature about the London-based performance artist and art/fashion
icon and his multi-channel video installation “Dizzy Remix”
are currently showing as part of the ‘Leigh Bowery: Beautified
Provocation’ exhibition at the Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover.
6 Minerva Street
London
E2 9EH
Open Wednesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm
For further information or images please contact
Kate Fisher: +44 (0)20 7729 9888
or: kate@vilmagold.com
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