Image: Doug Aitken, Tilda Swinton in The Source, 2012, via Sky Arts Ignition
American artist Doug Aitken has his first public installation in the UK entitled The Source, which asks a variety of leading arts practitioners questions about where their creative ideas come from. Viewers can watch video conversations with artists such as Tilda Swinton, Jack Pierson, Jack White, and Mike Kelley, projected inside a temporary structure on Liverpool’s historic Albert Dock built in collaboration with renowned British architect David Adjaye.
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Where does it start and how is it realized? Selections from artists of all ages are displayed in an unconventional structure at Tate Liverpool, which Aitken has said he would like to be a “a place that one can go to and walk into this field of ideas. It will be a celebration of the power of the individual and the forging of a borderless new creative territory.” The pavilion will also showcase the work at night, projecting it outwards from the structure.
Image: Exhibition View, Doug Aitken’s The Source projected on the exterior of David Adjaye’s pavilion structure, 2012, via Sky Arts Ignition
Aitken, represented by 303 Gallery, New York; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich; and Victoria Miro Gallery, London, has worked with photography, sculpture, architecture, narrative film, sound, video, and installation, and he has participated in over 150 art exhibitions throughout the world, including group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and solo exhibitions at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Serpentine Gallery, London, Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Deste Foundation, Greece and Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan.
Image: Doug Aitken, Tilda Swinton in The Source, 2012, via Sky Arts Ignition
Since the 1990s, Aitken has been creating installations that include multiple screens with video projections. In 2006 he made Broken Screen: 26 Conversations with Doug Aitken, a book of interviews with 26 filmmakers (including Robert Altman, Claire Denis, Werner Herzog, and Kenneth Anger) who challenge the conventional linear narrative. Other interview projects by Aitken include The Idea of the West (2010) where he asks “What is your idea of the West?” to 1000 random individuals on the street, and Patterns & Repetition (2011), a series of conversations about creativity in the 21st century with innovators of different artistic disciplines.
The Source is the first in a series run by Sky Arts in partnership with six leading arts organizations (Sky Arts Ignition Series). The project is also a part of the 2012 Liverpool Biennial. More information about the exhibition including trailers and a conversation with Aitken can be found on Tate Liverpool’s exhibition website.
Image: Doug Aitken and Mike Kelley in Aitken’s The Source, 2012, via Sky Arts Ignition
Image: Doug Aitken, Jack White in The Source, 2012, via Sky Arts Ignition
-E.Baker
Related Links:
Exhibition Page [Tate]
Doug Aitken [303 Gallery, New York], [Regen Projects L.A.], [Galerie Eva Presenhuber Zürich], [Victoria Miro Gallery, London]
Doug Aitken [Liverpool Biennial]
Doug Aitken’s “The Source [The Guardian]
David Adjaye [The Guardian]
