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30/9/2004

American Landscape

Palm Beach Institute, Lake Worth, FL

All-video Exhibition on View for the Month of October

Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce a new exhibition, American Landscape: Discordant Views, opening October 1 and running through October 31, 2004. The fifteen short video and film works can be viewed on a combination of large screens and individual monitors exhibited throughout the museum space.

American Landscape: Discordant Views examines implications of a changing United States through the images of an enduring American landscape in its broadest sense – geographically, historically, and socially. Historical references are made, physical landscape changes are seen over time, and social norms are depicted. The exhibition is loosely divided among these three categories. The artists represented bring to the fore falsities and inconsistencies, questioning societal norms through constructed environments, both artificial and real.

With current advances in film and video technology, more artists are documenting these transformations, capturing images of a shared world, a shared reality or a common bond, whether in time or place. In the works on view, through the use of personal narrative, surveillance footage or aerial topographical photos, issues of ambiguity, identity, imagination and paranoia are addressed. Individual subjectivity and national identity are recast in works exploring identity shifts across geographic, social and conceptual boundaries.

The modern mini-city model of the Suburb is a pervasive element in many of the works in the show. In Bobby Abate's video One Mile Per Minute, we are taken for a joyride through comfortable suburbia, panning across ubiquitous architecture and landscapes, allowing the viewer to identify these images with his/her own town. Chip Lord takes aim at the 'plastic' nature of leisure life, by casting dolls and miniature model cars as actors in his film Easy Living, a project of the Contemporary Art Television Fund. On a typical day in an 'all-American' town, we see recreational activities and car culture acted out by the very toys that shape the impressions of success and adult life for American youth.

Other videos explore the artist's response to nature and the built environment. Little Flags, produced by Jem Cohen, provides a soundtrack of ambient noise while the viewer acts as silent witness to a patriotic victory parade in the streets of New York. Jessica Bronson is heavily influenced by cinematic practices, frequently choosing very familiar, even cliched subjects which are culturally imbued with narrative. In five lobed and propagating, Bronson uses the image of a rose, referencing the hybridization practices that have been in use for many centuries, while using a video morphing effect to create her own unique digital rose hybrids to produce a new distorted natural landscape.

The sequence of an American flag waving in the air is repeated in Just, third prize winner in Experimental Video at the Athens International Film and Video Festival 2004. Here, producer Joon Soo Ha uses different processes such as video manipulation, computer printouts and photocopying. Through a formal and conceptual degeneration of both sound and image, Just gives the iconic image a new context and implication. Reminiscent of Jasper Johns' Flag, the artist may be positing that although the image remains the same, the context and process in which it appears constantly shifts.

Artists included in the show: Bobby Abate, Roger Beebe, Jessica Bronson, Paul Chan, Jem Cohen, Tony Cokes, Norman Cowie, Jim Finn, Harrell Fletcher, Joon Soo Ha, Art Jones, Les LeVeque, Chip Lord, Antonio Muntadas and Marshall Reese, and Deborah Stratman. American Landscape: Discordant Views is on view through October 31, 2004 and is curated and organized by Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art.

Public Programming
The museum offers numerous public programs in direct relation to current exhibitions. Most notable are Art Talks, which are artist presentations and panel discussions on current exhibitions led by exhibiting artists and arts professionals. Others include Artist-to-Artist Dialogues, Family Hands-on-Workshops, Art Book Club, Culture Club (targeting teens), and Cine al Fresco, the PBICA series of themed free outdoor films. Unless otherwise noted, all programs take place at PBICA and are included with paid museum admission. Attendees are encouraged to view the exhibition prior to the start of the program. Reservations requested.

Art Talks
Art Deco Architecture in South Florida Wednesday, October 6, 2004, 7:00 PM
Sharon Koskoff, founding president of the Art Deco Society of the Palm Beaches, will present a slide presentation on the architectural treasures found in South Florida. PBICA is an Art Deco gem built in 1939 by architect Roy A. Benjamin. Learn about the history of Art Deco Modernism as well as the architectural styling of the Jazz Age.

Women and War: A Lecture by Alyx Kellington Wednesday, October 13, 7:00 PM
As a news and documentary photographer working with Newsweek, The LA Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, Kellington has covered events in Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico, photographing women and children within conflictive environments. She addresses being a female photographer in combat; women's roles in war as victims, soldiers, bystanders or participants; war as an abusive relationship and its similarities to domestic violence.

Palm Beach County: A Changing Social Landscape Wednesday, October 20, 7:00 PM
A panel of local community leaders discuss the cultural diversity of South Florida and its impact on the demographic and social landscape. Participants to be announced.

South Florida Landscape: Conjugal Views Wednesday, October 27, 7:00 PM
Contemporary landscapes are defined by the marriage of built and natural environments. Three married couples who live and work together in Miami as award-winning architects, designers and artists will discuss the tensions of balancing a high aesthetic ideal with the muscular commerce of Florida's rapid growth. Dean and Martine Lewis of D. B. Lewis Architecture + Design, Mari and Jorge Trelles of Trelles Architects, and Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt of R and R Studios bring distinct creative voices to this panel discussion about visioning, achieving and maintaining a complex balance in the perfect marriage of two professional partners.

Cine al Fresco: Free Outdoor Films
Being Dorothy (2004) Friday, October 1, 8:00 PM
Directed by Howard Goldberg
If you are a teenage girl in Liberal, Kansas, you can have a job as 'Dorothy' at the Land of Oz Museum. The director poses elements of The Wizard of Oz against the conservative landscape of modern-day middle America.

Friday, October 15, 8:00 PM
In this 1941 film, Hollywood director Preston Sturges decides to write a serious, socially responsible film about human suffering. Once he realizes he knows nothing of hardship, he hits the road as a hobo, accompanied by Veronica Lake. The film mixes every conceivable cinematic genre and tone – from farce, prison film and social documentary to slapstick, romance, comedy, action and even musicals. This screening is sponsored by the Lake Worth Library.

Night of Shorts: Destination Now Friday, October 29, 8:00 PM
A series of short films that explore the changing American social fabric from the '60s to the present, and from the macro to the micro view. Films include Writing Desire (2000), directed by Ursula Biemann; Powers of Ten (1977), directed by Charles and Ray Eames; Pursuit of Happiness (1962), directed by Allan King; and Artist (1999), directed by Tracey Moffatt and Gary Hillberg.

Image: Joon Soo Ha

The Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art is located at 601 Lake Avenue in Downtown Lake Worth. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday from noon until 6:00 pm. The museum is open until 8:00 pm on the first and third Friday of the month and admission is free between 5:00 and 8:00 pm. Regular admission for this exhibition is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are free.
For more information, please call (561) 582-0006 or visit the website.
The exhibitions and programs at PBICA are generously supported by Robert and Mary Montgomery.

Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art
601 Lake Ave.
Lake Worth, FL 33460

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