Now showing at the Nasher Museum of art is Christian Marcalay's "Video Quartet" four simultaneously running adjacent screens of images that are sampled from more than 700 Hollywood films featuring images of hands on keyboards, horns and violins, as well as men and women singing, dancing and making other noises. Making a unique visual and sonic collage. From Jimi Hendrix to Marilyn Monroe and glimpses icons like Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, Video Quartet is a cultural flash card. Watching the settings and social norms of American culture is almost as interesting as the visual play that has elements like a falling drum cymbal turning into a vinyl LP. In the spirit of Marcel Duchamp's "ready mades" this art may have been found but it was painstakingly put together in revellatory new fashion. This is indeed art.
Also at the Nasher at the moment is "Photographs From The Duke University Special Collections Library." A wonderful show featuring printing styles and photographic subjects through the entire history of photography. Alot of iconic photographers are found in the show including; Atget, Bresson, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Minor White and Sally Mann. Having only seen these photographers in books it is wonderful to see their work in person printed. I particularly was drawn to the Minor White photo that is in the exhibit of an Appalachian coal miner. The detail and sadness of the Atget image of a very short man selling flowers. Also exhibited are negatives and projections of images on the walls digitally.
1 comment:
Thank for the heads up on the Nasher walls, Holden.. I'll Definitely have to check that out.
Thanks, too, for adding me to your blog list, Holden.. which, btw, might I offer a correction to? One of my less-than-original punny advantages to that name is the double entendre it provides when run together.
waynesword.
For those days when I want to rant or cleave a fine distinction.
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