Robert Wilson
VOOM Portraits
Kool (Snow Owl) 2006
Music by Peter Cerone
“A man from the street, an animal, a child, superstars, gods of our time.”
Robert Wilson
Photo courtesy VOOM HD
We welcome the new year with the Voom Video Portraits by Robert Wilson, a pioneer in the art world who has changed the way we look at theater, art and design.
We kick off with Kool (Snow Owl) and will be adding new Video Portraits over the next couple of month.
Video by VOOM HD 15083 KB Duration 00:02:15:25
Artist Statement
A Still Life is a Real Life
“The video portraits can be seen in the three traditional ways that artists construct space. If I hold my hand in front of my face, I can say it is a portrait. If I see my hand at a distance, I can say it is part of a still life, and if I see it from across the street, I can say that it is part of a landscape.
In constructing these spaces, we see an image which can be thought of as a portrait. If we look carefully, this still life is a real life. And in a way, if we think about it and look at them long enough, the mental spaces become mental landscapes.
These portraits stem from a work I did in the 1970s, VIDEO 50. I made various portraits, including surrealist writer Louis Aragon, socialite Helene Rochas, a duck, a priest I met in a bar, museum director Pontus Hulten, Sony CEO Akito Morita and France’s Minister of Culture Michel Guy. Those portraits could be seen on TV, in galleries, museums, subways, hotel lobbies, airports, or even on the face of a wristwatch.
I imagine the VOOM portraits being seen in public spaces, as well as at home. At home, they are a kind of window in the room or a fire in the fireplace.
Often people ask me, “What are the ideas behind the images?” I do not interpret my work. Interpretation is for others. To fix a meaning to a work limits its poetry and the possibility of other ideas. They are personal, poetic statements of different personalities.”
Robert Wilson
The VOOM Portraits, as well as a selection of Wilson’s Chairs, are also on view in the arcspace gallery in Second Life from January 7, 2009.
The VOOM PORTRAITS were commissioned and produced in a working collaboration between Robert Wilson and VOOM HD, where he has been an Artist-in-Residence since 2004.
Voom HD is a 24/7 international lifestyle television channel currently distributed in 35 countries worldwide. VOOM HD provides programming produced exclusively in true 1080i high-definition and 5.1 Dolby® Digital surround sound.
To-date the portrait series has been exhibited in museums and galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Iowa, Omaha, Houston, Miami Beach, Philadelphia, Moscow Russia, Naples Italy, Spoleto Italy, Singapore, Sao Paulo Brazil, and soon to Valladolid Spain, Milan Italy, Graz Austria, Hamburg Germany, Karlsruhe Germany, Groningen Holland, and Paris France. Future exhibitions are currently being scheduled.
For more information contact: ACE Gallery
Exhibition
Anna didn't come home that night...
16 Robert Wilson tableaus
The Danish Museum of Decorative Arts
Next VOOM Portrait:
Steve Buscemi
Actor 2004
Music by Michael Galasso
January 5, 2009