(AAPNW) – Opening on Friday, November 5, in the Forefront Galleries at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and remaining on view through March 6, 2011, “Framed” is an exhibition that will feature videos of artist’s work in relation to influential early films by Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra. The artists have used video to examine the space between self and environment, self and other, and the divide between what is recorded by a camera and the expanse of unmediated life. These works strategically employ video not only as a means of documentation, but also to call attention to how the camera frame delineates space.
In the 1960s and 70s, Nauman and Serra staged repetitive actions within defined spaces in ways that proved inspirational for artists working today. In his 1967-68 film, “Dance or Exercise on the Perimeter of a Square”, he creates a square of masking tape on his studio floor and systematically moves around its perimeter to the sound of a metronome. Serra’s 1969 film, “Frame” similarly documents a methodical action within the camera’s lens, depicting the artist as he makes four sets of measurements with a six-inch ruler of a window frame and a film projection of the same window frame. His action emphasizes the perceptual disparity between what is seen through the lens of a camera and the direct visual perception of the same space.
Both of their seminal works provide the historical context for the more recent works in the show, with a selection of videos by artists who revisit and expand major themes of early video art, including measurement, duration, masochism, collaboration, and public interventions.
New York-based artist Kate Gilmore will create a new performing video in the McCormack Forefront Galleries, which she will document her process of overcoming a self-constructed obstacle. Also on display will be her work, “Main Squeeze” (2006), in which she undertakes the absurd task of forcing her body through a tight rectangular tunnel.
Israeli artist Sigalit Landau’s “Day Done” (2007) draws on an ancient Jewish ritual in which part of the wall of a newly built house is deliberately left unpainted or not plastered, in order to commemorate historical acts of destruction.
“The Square-After Roberto Lopardo” (2004) by Lilly McElroy documents the artist as she draws a square in chalk on a city sidewalk and attempts to block all pedestrians from entering the space she has demarcated.
While South Africa-born, Berlin-based artist Robin Rhode takes to the studio for his 2008 work “Promenade”, where he interacts with lines and shapes he has drawn on the wall of his studio.
In “Perfect Square” (2006), Melanie Schiff sets up an underwater camera to record her quiet, poetic movements as she tries to swim, unsuccessfully, in a perfect square within the frame of the camera.
“Type A’s Mark” (2002) documents the collaboration of Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin, as they use their bodies to create drawings in chalk on their studio floor.
Organized by Chair of the Department of Contemporary Art, Lisa Freiman and Sarah Urist Green, associate curator of contemporary art at IMA, an additional public forum is with Kate Gilmore and Lilly McElroy on Thursday, November 4 at 6:00 pm in the Tobias Theater, immediately following the opening reception.
For more detailed information on this show, call 317.923.1331 or see: www.imamuseum.org.