Mathias Poledna
dal 6/12/2014 al 7/2/2015
Segnalato da
6/12/2014
Mathias Poledna
The Renaissance Society, Chicago
For the exhibition the artist proposes the notion of iconoclasm and its various historical contexts as a conceptual backdrop for two new works: a 35mm film installation that juxtaposes a new moving image work with a comprehensive reimagining of the venue's setting.
The Renaissance Society presents a major commission by Los Angeles-based artist Mathias Poledna. For this exhibition, Poledna has created an installation that juxtaposes a new moving image work with a comprehensive reimagining of the venue’s setting.
Poledna’s art most commonly takes the form of highly concentrated film works that unfold a complex tension between the visuals and their critical and cultural implications. His work, as Michael Bracewell writes, suggests “a form of conceptualism, philosophical in basis, which attempts to engage with paradox as a means of enquiry.” In Poledna’s films and the rigorously formal environments he creates for them, salient beauty and visual restraint collude in a viewing experience that encompasses both affect and detachment.
Poledna’s concise presentations underscore a mode of production in which he frequently involves specialist collaborators in order to articulate a highly specific frame of vision. The films draw on the artist’s panoramic range of interests, from the music of post-punk and a rainforest in Papua New Guinea to 1930s style animation, as in his seminal 2013 film, Imitation of Life. Although invariably newly produced, they often create the impression of having been found as they are, seemingly extricated from present-day or historic collective imaginaries.
This exhibition coincides with the Renaissance Society’s Centennial anniversary in 2015 and marks the final presentation in the institution’s first 100 years. For his project Poledna proposes the notion of iconoclasm and its various historical contexts as a conceptual backdrop for two new works: a 35mm film installation, co-produced with the Renaissance Society and presented here for the first time, and a substantial alteration to the gallery space.
Together, their presentation foments a multi-layered conversation between histories of the site; concepts of public space and private property; and the paradoxical legacies of historicism and modernism in architecture and design. More broadly, the exhibition reflects Poledna’s ongoing interest in the production and circulation of images within spectacle.
A comprehensive catalog that documents and critically reflects on the exhibition will be published in Spring 2015. Conceived by the artist, it features new essays by Amy Knight Powell, Associate Professor of Art History at University of California, Irvine; Bennett Simpson, Senior Curator at MOCA Los Angeles; and Andrew Weiner, Assistant Professor of Art Theory and Criticism at NYU Steinhardt, New York.
Image: Mathias Poledna, Untitled, 2014
Opening: Sunday December 7, 4–7pm
The Renaissance Society
at the University of Chicago
5811 South Ellis Avenue
Tuesday to Friday: 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday and Sunday: 12 – 5 pm
Closed Mondays
Bergman Gallery, Cobb Hall 418
Chicago, Illinois 60637