Doug Aitken isn’t any one thing. He’s a photographer, a filmmaker, a sculptor and an installation artist. Sometimes his work is completely tech-based and other times it’s hand-crafted. But the common thread evident in all his work is a fascination with and mastery of new media. Whether he’s projecting video onto the side of a building (”Sleepwalkers” (2007) was shown on the exterior walls of MoMA) or recreating an Italian cityscape out of FedEx boxes, Aitken is always saying something both with and about modern technology and how it has shaped modern life.
At his upcoming exhibition at Regen Projects, the four projection video installation “Migration” will make its west coast debut. The film shows migratory animals as they move through deserted human structures, hinting at what life would be like if people were instantly eradicated and animals were left to make sense of what we left behind.
Doug Aitken at Regen Projects, September 12 – October 17, 2009
If you go to the LACMA home page right now you won’t see a list of current exhibitions or visitor information. Instead you’ll be treated to the moving, talking, walking text-based piece “Hey, Where’d All the Smart Guys Go?” by Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. After you see this you’ll of course want to see more, like Dakota (which reminds me of the trailers for Stanley Kubrick’s DR. STRANGELOVE or A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), or The Sea.
Both of these, like all their work, is set to jazz. Some pieces are also narrated by a computer’s voice, like “Résumé I,” their “cover” of Archie and the Drells’ “Tighten Up,” which plays underneath a scrolling résumé that contains a lot of words but very little information about the people behind it all.
I just came across this and even though it’s ancient in Internet time, it’s too good to pass up. Swiss duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s 1987 “The Way Things Go” is a video recording of a Rube Goldberg machine, measuring approximately 100 feet long and set in a warehouse, come to life as common everyday objects methodically interact with one another in a long kinetic cause and effect chain. It’s a mesmerizing exercise in mechanical, physical, and chemical hypnotism.
A video-artist collective Apparati Effimeri created a very impressive video installation which was then projected onto a pre-mapped castle facade, which produced some really stunning “wow!” effects. A+ for this effort.
Andrew’s recent entry here on Google Street View foiling a crime tangentially reminds of this short video piece created by artist Billy Rennekamp of a car driving in circles on a highway clover intersection which is layered with Google Maps street view iconography. Interestingly, the driver seems to be going in the opposite direction of Google’s noted traffic direction at this intersection. Will “future cars” feature a heads up display or HUD (similar to military fighter planes) that will map out the routes and directions as seen in Rennekamp’s video? To get anywhere by car we’ll actually follow the proverbial yellow brick road, or rather Google Maps’ yellow line.
