IN RESPONSE:
Scenes
Scenes
Sunday, April 29, 2018
6:30 pm EST
6:30 pm EST
In Scenes from the Collection, selected works are presented in thematic “scenes,” weaving together centuries of art and Judaica. Each gallery suggests a different filter through which we may approach and understand art. Columbia University Visual Arts MFA candidates and recent alumni presented new video, performance, and installation-based artworks in response to the new collection display, which speaks to the vast range of Jewish experiences across the globe and over time, made tangible through artistic expression.
Participating Artists:
Cati Bestard
Gregory Gentert
Taejoong Kim
Rachel LaBine
Jeffrey Meris
Pauline Shaw
Hinda Weiss
Alex B. Fine
Kiyan Williams
Xirin
Ayoung Yu
Zou Xi Xi Zhao
Participating Artists:
Cati Bestard
Gregory Gentert
Taejoong Kim
Rachel LaBine
Jeffrey Meris
Pauline Shaw
Hinda Weiss
Alex B. Fine
Kiyan Williams
Xirin
Ayoung Yu
Zou Xi Xi Zhao
Cati Bestard
Walls
Installation
A composition of photographs taken in the Jewish Museum’s Scenes from the Collection galleries reflects on architecture as structure and the accumulative and invisible history of a space. The photographic images are the remains of an extinguished moment, while at the same time the subject of the photographs exist in the present, in the same building, on another plane, immobile.
Installation
A composition of photographs taken in the Jewish Museum’s Scenes from the Collection galleries reflects on architecture as structure and the accumulative and invisible history of a space. The photographic images are the remains of an extinguished moment, while at the same time the subject of the photographs exist in the present, in the same building, on another plane, immobile.
Gregory Gentert
The Tourist
Video
A single channel video composed of still black and white photographs made on Governor’s Island as part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Process Space Program.
Video
A single channel video composed of still black and white photographs made on Governor’s Island as part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Process Space Program.
Taejoong Kim
Silent Scenes
Video
A video installation created with speeches of Donald J. Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Video
A video installation created with speeches of Donald J. Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Rachel LaBine
The width of a heel
Performance
A drawing performance accompanied by a sound piece, using projected light, doubling, and shadow.
Performance
A drawing performance accompanied by a sound piece, using projected light, doubling, and shadow.
Jeffrey Meris
San Pye
Installation
A kinetic sculpture with plaster cast feet, steel base, motor, contact microphones and speakers. By a foot, I meant that which contains memory, dreams and language. San like blood or without, maybe without blood. Pye, the foot, by foot.
Installation
A kinetic sculpture with plaster cast feet, steel base, motor, contact microphones and speakers. By a foot, I meant that which contains memory, dreams and language. San like blood or without, maybe without blood. Pye, the foot, by foot.
Pauline Shaw
Untitled
Installation
A hand-sculpted ceramic artifact based on ancient Chinese jade burial pendants. Housed within a velvet flocked encasement, the artifact’s luminosity, color, and form subtly shifts through changes in light.
Installation
A hand-sculpted ceramic artifact based on ancient Chinese jade burial pendants. Housed within a velvet flocked encasement, the artifact’s luminosity, color, and form subtly shifts through changes in light.
Hinda Weiss and Alex B. Fine
Broken turtle, busy hare
Performance
A performance weaving together two artists’ journeys: Hinda Weiss’s video work from the Negev Desert and fragments of Alex B. Fine’s memories of his childhood in rural North Carolina. A woman walks with absolute determination on an absurd path while a boy attempts to construct an identity out of animal corpses, archaeological artifacts, and religious paraphernalia.
Performance
A performance weaving together two artists’ journeys: Hinda Weiss’s video work from the Negev Desert and fragments of Alex B. Fine’s memories of his childhood in rural North Carolina. A woman walks with absolute determination on an absurd path while a boy attempts to construct an identity out of animal corpses, archaeological artifacts, and religious paraphernalia.
Kiyan Williams
Reflections
Performance
This piece features a video that brings together voices from the past and present that speak to the diverse experiences of Black people who resist normative gender. During the performance I reflect, refract, and obscure the video with my body, complicating the consumption of the depicted images. Reflections is a part of my ongoing project based on critical and creative engagements with the archives of filmmaker and activist Marlon Riggs, whose seminal film Tongues Untied (1989) gave voice to the lives of Black gay men in America.
Performance
This piece features a video that brings together voices from the past and present that speak to the diverse experiences of Black people who resist normative gender. During the performance I reflect, refract, and obscure the video with my body, complicating the consumption of the depicted images. Reflections is a part of my ongoing project based on critical and creative engagements with the archives of filmmaker and activist Marlon Riggs, whose seminal film Tongues Untied (1989) gave voice to the lives of Black gay men in America.
Xirin
Babelet
Performance
Babelet is a small thing that conjures attention through its tininess, and is, at times, a performance composed of live and prerecorded dangling words, visuals, sounds, and impressions.
Performance
Babelet is a small thing that conjures attention through its tininess, and is, at times, a performance composed of live and prerecorded dangling words, visuals, sounds, and impressions.
Ayoung Yu
Untitled
This film showcases Korean folk dancer Eun Sung Lee, performing original choreography in an immersive installation. She performs three segments that combine different styles of dance to tell stories of immigration, preservation of tradition, and imagined futures.
Video
This film showcases Korean folk dancer Eun Sung Lee, performing original choreography in an immersive installation. She performs three segments that combine different styles of dance to tell stories of immigration, preservation of tradition, and imagined futures.
Zou Xi Xi Zhao
Taking a long road… (To reconciliation)
Performance
In conversation with the earlier project The Apology Embassy, this work explores a deliberate attempt at reconciliation as a transformative experience. Focusing on the feeling of shame and investigating it as a potentially revolutionary sentiment, this work takes cues from the experience of Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia and makes reference to the recent claiming of Jewish ancestries in various villages after a ban on religion was lifted in China. The Apologist, a fictional character, explores her internal crisis and identity ambivalence onstage, using references to artwork found in the Jewish Museum’s collection.
Performance
In conversation with the earlier project The Apology Embassy, this work explores a deliberate attempt at reconciliation as a transformative experience. Focusing on the feeling of shame and investigating it as a potentially revolutionary sentiment, this work takes cues from the experience of Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia and makes reference to the recent claiming of Jewish ancestries in various villages after a ban on religion was lifted in China. The Apologist, a fictional character, explores her internal crisis and identity ambivalence onstage, using references to artwork found in the Jewish Museum’s collection.
Installation view of Scenes from the Collection. The Jewish Museum, New York. Photos by: Jason Mandella and Kris Graves. Event photography by Sara Wass.