Charles Atlas
Tornado Warning
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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.
For further information or images please contact Kate Fisher:
+44(0) 20 8981 3344 or: kate@vilmagold.com
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Installation view - Vilma Gold, 2009
Installation view - Vilma Gold, 2009
Installation view - Vilma Gold, 2009
Installation view - Vilma Gold, 2009
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