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Gallery Collection:Sara VanDerBeek, Mika Rottenberg, Cao Fei
Events
Written by In the document   
Published: June 24 2009

Sara VanDerBeek "This Weary Way" (2006) Digital C-Print, 50.8 x 40.6 cm Courtesy of Take Ninagawa copy right(c) Sara VanDerBeek

The exhibition of works by international artists Cao Fei, Sara VanDerBeek and Mika Rottenberg from the gallery collection. This is the first presentation of work by VanDerBeek and Rottenberg in Japan. Born in Baltimore in 1976, New York artist Sara VanDerBeek is known for her experimental color and monochrome photographic compositions of fragmented images and geometric forms. In making her photographs, VanDerBeek often creates small assemblages of found materials that evoke the spindly modernism of Alexander Calder or the ironic abstractions of Dan Graham. VanDerBeek then photographs these assemblages, scrambling the relationships between space, form and scale. On display will be three works from 2006, including This Weary Way, which features two black-and-white snapshots superimposed over a cascade of black ribbons on a wood board; and Eclipse 3, documenting an assemblage of geometric forms and a stamp-shaped fragment of a photo of an oriental sculpture. Born in Buenos Aires in 1976 and raised primarily in Israel, Mika Rottenberg currently lives and works in New York. Rottenberg’s multimedia installations combine grotesquely absurdist videos and architectural constructions to reflect upon the intersections between humanity and modes of production. Included in exhibition is Rottenberg’s most recent installation, Fried Sweat (2008), made collaboratively with senior New York artist Marilyn Minter. Minter’s glossy photographic close-up of a woman’s armpit hangs askew on the gallery wall, from behind which strange music seems to emanate. Curious visitors tempted to push the framed photo back into place will discover a peephole through which they can view Rottenberg’s video. The video’s cast includes a sweating muscle man, a yoga girl and a pair of Indian musicians in a champagne tower. A recent portfolio of photographs by Rottenberg is also on display. Born in 1978 in Guangzhou, Cao Fei is one of China’s most remarkable young artists. She has been featured in exhibitions including the Venice Biennale, the Istanbul Biennale and the Biennale of Sydney. Working with photography, video and performance, Cao uses documentary methods to investigate how people live out their fantasies. On display is Hijacking (2004-06), a photograph from the “COSPlayers” series of photographs and videos that first brought her international attention. “COSPlayers” followed the lives of Chinese urban youth who dress up as characters inspired by Japanese anime and video games. The themes explored in the work continue to inform Cao’s latest project, “RMB City,” for which she makes video documentations of the denizens of the virtual reality society Second Life. * The text was provided by Take Ninagawa.

Last Updated on June 20 2009
 

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