Rhythms of Perception. The survey exhibition features more than 20 works that span Campbell's 30-year career. It includes early experimental film, interactive artworks, low resolution videos, large-scale sculptural installations, and the premiere of a new work, Self Portrait of Jim Campbell (with Disturbances) (2014).
Astoria, New York, February 10, 2014—Museum of the Moving Image presents the first
solo museum exhibition in New York of the work of Jim Campbell (b. 1956), the San
Francisco-based artist best known for his evocative low resolution works. An innovator
in the use of technology, Campbell integrates and manipulates computers and custom
electronics into visually arresting artworks. The survey exhibition, Jim Campbell:
Rhythms of Perception , features more than 20 works that span Campbell’s 30-year
career. It will include early experimental film, interactive artworks, low resolution
videos, large-scale sculptural installations, and the premiere of a new work, Self
Portrait of Jim Campbell (with Disturbances) (2014). Among the highlights is the rarely
shown Last Day in the Beginning of March (2003), which features 26 suspended
light bulbs and a soundscape that evokes the last day in the life of the artist’s brother.
The exhibition opens in New York City on March 21, 2014 and will be on view through
June 15.
Among Campbell’s celebrated works are his experiments in low resolution imagery
using LED lights. The exhibition Jim Campbell: Rhythms of Perception will feature
several of these works, including Home Movies, 1040-1, (2008), a large-scale grid of
LEDs, which project Campbell’s own home movies, as shadowy digital images on the
wall, and two pieces from his Motion and Rest series (2002), which depict the
movement of a disabled person across a low resolution screen of LED lights, a
presentation that renders the personal characteristics of the subject into an
abstraction.
Campbell’s low resolution works expanded into three dimensions with the Exploded
View series (2010–2011), in which moving images—depicting birds, runners, and
commuters—break out along a z-axis. From most perspectives, the work appears as a
random array of blinking lights. But from a privileged vantage point, the subject shifts
into focus: figures barely decipherable by the eye but strangely comprehensible to the
mind. Exploded View (Commuters) (2011), a work previously shown by the Museum,
36-01 35 Avenue Astoria, NY 11106 718 777 6800 movingimage.uswill be included in this exhibition.
The exhibition will also include significant early works: In Shadow for Heisenberg
(1993–1994), a statue of a Buddha ensconced in a glass cube becomes obscured: the
closer a viewer comes to the piece, the more the glass fogs, and the shadow of the
Buddha becomes clearer. Another early work in the exhibition is Color by Number
(1998–1999): two four-by-four feet screens become dynamic color fields, with colors
generated by the movement of a pixel over a digital image out of direct sight in a booth
behind each large screen.
Jim Campbell: Rhythms of Perception is organized by guest curator Steve Dietz,
Founder, President, and Artistic Director of Northern.Lights.mn, and editor of
Campbell’s retrospective catalog Jim Campbell: Material Light (2010, Hatje Cantz).
“Like Rembrandt, Jim is a master with light, a portraitist for this age,” commented
Dietz. “Jim’s work is fascinating for the rigor of his process, using his sophisticated
technological facility to restlessly explore a series of problems that are grounded in the
physiology of perception but which ultimately escape into a rhythmic world of
wonder.”
Related program: On Saturday, March 22, at 2:00 p.m., the Museum will present a
public conversation with Jim Campbell and curator Steve Dietz. Tickets are free with
Museum admission.
Jim Campbell is renowned as an innovator in the use of technology in art, making
custom computer chips and related electronics for most of his works. He was born in
1956 in Chicago, Illinois, and received degrees in both electrical engineering and
mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978. As an engineer
he holds more than a dozen patents in the field of video image processing. His work
has been shown internationally and throughout North America. His work is included in
the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art; The Museum of Modern Art;
the Metropolitan Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA);
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art among others. SFMOMA honored Campbell
with the 2012 Bay Area Treasure Award for lifetime achievement in October.
An exhibition of new work by Jim Campbell will be on view at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
in Chelsea from March 7 through April 19, 2014. New Work will focus on the pioneering
artist’s most recent series of sculptural light installations. In three separate series on
view: Topographies, Reconstructions, and Home Movies , the artist continues to
challenge notions of image making and the experience of viewing by injecting color (an
element rarely used before) into his illuminated palette. For more information, please
visit http://brycewolkowitz.com.
In addition, New York's Joyce Theater will present Constellation , a collaboration
between Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Jim Campbell, from March 18 through 23, 2014.
The performance will feature an installation comprised of 1,000 light spheres
programmed in synchronized interplay with the dancers. For more information, please
visit: http://www.joyce.org.
MUSEUM INFORMATION
Museum of the Moving Image (movingimage.us) advances the understanding, enjoyment, and
appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. In its
stunning facilities—acclaimed for both its accessibility and bold design—the Museum presents
exhibitions; screenings of significant works; discussion programs featuring actors, directors,
craftspeople, and business leaders; and education programs which serve more than 50,000
students each year. The Museum also houses a significant collection of moving-image
artifacts.
The Museum is housed in a building owned by the City of New York and located on the campus of Kaufman
Astoria Studios. Its operations are made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York
City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New York
State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the
Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Natural Heritage Trust (administered by
the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation). The Museum also receives
generous support from numerous corporations, foundations, and individuals. For more information, please
visit movingimage.us.
Image: Jim Campbell (American, b. 1956) Home Movies 1040, 2008 Custom electronics, 1,040 LEDs Installation view in the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, 2010. Loan courtesy of Jim Campbell.
Credit: Photo by Olivia Body
Press Contact: Tomoko Kawamoto / tkawamoto@movingimage.us / 718 777 6830
PRESS PREVIEW ON THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 11:00 A.M. TO 1:00 P.M.
Museum of the Moving Image
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Hours: Wednesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday, 10:30 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday-
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Film Screenings: Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, and as scheduled. Tickets for regular
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