Pipilotti Rist, Worry Will Vanish Horizon (video still) (2014), All images Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine New York.
One of the most seminal names in video art, Pipilotti Rist is presenting a new body of work at Hauser & Wirth’s two Britain locations. The Swiss born artist, who emerged in the rapidly developing field of video art during the 80’s with her infamous video I’m Not The Girl Who Misses Much, has presented an ambitious oeuvre throughout the years, reflecting on issues related to the body, gender and technology. In doing so, she has blended various mediums and structures that are challenging to consider under one practice, each one holding onto a distinct atmosphere set in what could be considered an alternate reality.
Pipilotti Rist, Worry Will Vanish (Installation View) (2014)
For Worry Will Vanish, Rist has orchestrated a participatory experience for the visitors. With a carpet installed on the gallery floor, visitors are encouraged to lie down to experience the installation through a variety of different angles. The video installation offers a captivating voyage inside of the human body through a three dimensional animation projected onto the gallery walls. Throughout, the artist studies the nature of human flesh, unveiling its limitlessness in terms of visual diversity as well as the mysterious states that ultimately can place the human body as something wholly foreign. Approaching the body as though it were a canvas, Rist captures mesmerizing images from the very core of the human skin, discovering new territories for creating and maintaing natural equilibriums.
Pipilotti Rist, Worry Will Vanish Horizon (video still) (2014)
In Stay Stamina Stay, for instance Rist presents the fruits of her year-long stay in Bruton for a residency at Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset location, reflecting a body of work that carries traces from her sojourn in the small British town. Observing the subtleties sometimes omitted over the course of time, Rist concentrates on microcosmic textures of the universe to present larger pictures of the biological components of humanity as opposed to a notion of the body as a cohesive, individualist landscape. Videos such as Sleeping Pollen and Mercy Garden depict the positioning of the human within or against nature – both as an alibi and a challenging agent, while Rist’s perspective maintains an objective and neutral gaze.
Pipilotti Rist, Mercy Garden (video still) (2013-2014)
Rist is not a stranger to highly compact multidisciplinary video installations that dwell into viewers’ cooperation while promising sensory stimulations that are built within meticulous environments. Pour Your Body Out, commissioned by MoMa to be installed at the museum’s atrium, or Open My Glade, shown at Times Square every hour for a month in 2000, orchestrated visual and audial engagements with their audiences exposing them to hallucinatory yet tangible states.
Pipilotti Rist: Worry Will Vanish is on view at Hauser & Wirth London through January 10, 2015 and Stay Stamina Stay is on view at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in Bruton through February 22, 2015.
Pipilotti Rist, Worry Will Vanish Horizon (video still) (2014)
— O.C. Yerebakan
Related Links:
Hauser &Wirth [Exhibition Page]
