Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Hertfordshire
In Search of Time : Exhibition [Video and photographic installation]
ISOT is a curatorial project that explores artists' preoccupations with time and memory. It was conceived by the international writer and curator Michael Rush (author of ‘Video Art’ 2007, ‘New Media in Art’, 2005 and ‘New Media in Late 20th-Century Art’1999 (all Thames and Hudson) for the inaugural exhibitions of the Zaha Hadid-designed Broad Art Museum. Rush commissioned five large-format portraits made as constructed photographs alongside two video works. The work was selected based on its exploration of suspended time in the context of digital interventions and was shown alongside thematically linked works by Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Damien Hirst and Mike Kelley. ISOT opened alongside high profile events and intensive programme of public lectures, educational initiatives, and public relations activity. The Broad Art Museum is a high profile institution, with a world-standard collection of art from across the globe. Eli Broad is the founder of the Broad Foundation, The Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles and is a preeminent art collector in the USA.
Works selected for ISOT are both a critique and reinvention of portraiture in the context of mass consumer images. The originality resides in its subversion of portraiture conventions and the imagery of popular culture. These portraits were made by combining both found and authored images, and manipulating them to the point of near dissolution. Work from this series has been shown in several curated shows dealing with these overarching concerns including The Herbert Johnson Museum, NY, the Rose Art Museum, MA, and the Krannert Museum of Art.
The work was a culmination of research examining at what point do digital interventions negate the intent to represent or create a likeness? Can a portrait of ‘no one’ evince emotive reactions? How do we define modern dislocation?