Cinema Cavern
June 24—September 24, 2007
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center proudly presents Cinema Cavern. Taking its title from Robert Smithson's drawing, Towards the Development of a "Cinema Cavern" (1971), this program of small gauge films and videos is presented "truly 'underground'" in the museum's Vault Gallery. This exhibition is on view starting June 24, 2007.
Dubious documentaries, impossible locations, and the tendency to unbury difficult stories could roughly describe this selection of works, which individually resist categorization, as well as placement within traditional theatrical or exhibition contexts. Their compilation within the spatial confines of a subterranean vault also requires slowing down, and poses opposition to the predominant cultural pace represented, for example, by Internet video sites such as YouTube.
Characteristically dislocated and cavernous, the works on view span several generations, and highlight artists concerned with what Andrew V. Uroskie calls "unlearn[ing] disciplinary orthodoxies that have grown up to segregate the fields of film, video, performance, and installation." These works are situated "between the institutional dynamics of the movie theater's 'black box' and the museum's 'white cube'."
This exhibition features works by: Peggy Ahwesh and Margie Strosser, aka Joey, Charles Atlas, Michel Auder, Ellen Cantor, Renée Green, Saul Levine, Luther Price, and Elisabeth Subrin.
-
Charles Atlas
Son of Sam and Delilah
2007
Video
37 min
Courtesy the artist
-
Peggy Ahwesh and Margie Strosser
Strange Weather
1993
16mm and Pixelvision transferred to DVD
50 min
Courtesy the artists
-
aka Joey
330.20
2003
Video
37 min
Courtesy the artist
Cinema Cavern is organized by P.S.1 Curatorial Advisor Lia Gangitano.