A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery through March 6.
Through March 6, New York’s Marian Goodman Gallery is showing two films by Steve McQueen. Â This is the American debut of “Giardini,” the 30-minute, two-projection film which premiered at the 2009 Venice Biennale and is set on its grounds. “Static” (2009) is showing for the first time, made specifically for the exhibition and centered around the Statue of Liberty. Perspective and national monument are satirized and subverted, recreated in this new exhibition.
A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery, along with “Giardini,” through March 6.
More images and story after the jump…
A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.
The curator, Leslie Nolen, tells me that “Giardini” works to make the “familiar” seem “unrecognizable.” As the stills below demonstrate, the viewer is shown barren buildings, overrun by barbarism. These are the Biennale grounds between celebrations, in the wake of spectacle — made, of course, spectacle by the film. The film lets its audience see the Biennale after the art has gone, and the over-determination over, leaving just the possibilities for next year’s festival and the histories of the last festivals behind. In opening up perspective, McQueen gives visitors a dwelling of possibility (as Dickinson would put it).
A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.
A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.
“Static” recalls, in title, fixed perspective, temporally and spatially. Accordingly, the film displays different pieces of New York and New Jersey skylines by working around the monument which marks them, the Statue of Liberty. That is, a static monument meant to define a melting pot is used as the pivot for changing perspective. To borrow T.J. Demos’s notes on “Giardini,” “The film’s suspension of its images in a field of multiple possibilities defines its power: to release life from belonging to any certain code, clear narrative, or restrictive regiment.” By the same token, the national and international monuments on which these films capitalize are broken into their parts, these “static” centers shifting by the fact of their filming.
A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.
A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.
A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery.
Born in 1969, the British artist Steve McQueen studied at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts; the Chelsea School of Art, London; and Goldsmith College in London. He has had solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago; Tate Britain; MoMA in New York; Vienna Kunsthalle; Prada Foundation, Milan; and more. He is the 1999 recipient of the Turner Prize.
– R. Fogel
Related links:
Marian Goodman Gallery
Steve McQueen [Artnet]
Steve McQueen, Intense Seeker of Powerful Elegance [NYT]
