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24/9/2004

Liza Johnson

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown

if then maybe

A multi-channel video installation by filmmaker and Assistant Professor of Art at Williams College, Liza Johnson. Johnson created this most recent installation for the museum’s historic rotunda gallery; it features five separate video loops projected on large, suspended screens and a series of related photographs in the adjacent Media Field gallery. The exhibition examines feminine gestures, specifically the gestures of shame, prevalent in Hollywood cinema.

On Thursday, September 30, the artist will give a lecture at 4:00 p.m. in the WCMA auditorium. A reception will follow in the galleries. The public is welcome to attend both events.

If then maybe is an intricately arranged cycle of images that presents a philosophical meditation on cinematic tropes. Johnson restaged and reshot these typically feminine motions, a downward glance, a turned head, or a blushing cheek, in a decidedly cinematic style, with lush lighting, and beautiful sets, yet she removed them from their storylines. The images feel familiar as instants of silent tension in well-known Hollywood dramas, but they do not refer to specific recognizable scenes. Each short, perfectly circular, video loop is characterized by a static camera focused on a woman caught in an endless moment of speechless vulnerability. With the loops, Johnson creates an unnerving environment in which the women cannot escape the frame.

“Liza Johnson’s newest work beautifully and seductively addresses issues of gender, psychology, and film and art history,” says curator Lisa Dorin, “The piece makes us look at bad feelings in a constructive way.” In contrast to earlier accepted feminist imagery, which insisted upon positive and redeeming depictions of women wielding attributes of power, Johnson’s women are seemingly at their weakest, under constant scrutiny by a suggested off-screen presence, as well as by the viewers themselves. But by excising these moments from their narrative contexts and isolating them through repetition, the work draws attention to the gestures, and opens them up to interpretation. The five accompanying photographs, on view in the adjacent Media Field gallery, give a glimpse of what the women in the videos might see as they cast their gazes down in shame. They ask, How does the world look when seen from these particular feminine postures? What points of view does shame allow?

About the Artist
Liza Johnson has screened her work in many international film venues, including the Berlin and Rotterdam film festivals, New York Video Festival, and a large number of gay and lesbian film festivals. Additionly, Johnson has shown her work in several museums and galleries, including Artist’s Space in New York and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Some of her past films and videos include Good Sister/Bad Sister (1996), Fernweh/The Oppostite of Homesick (2000), and Falling (2003). She was the recipient of a DAAD Berlin Kunstlerprogram Fellowship and Residency in Film in 1999. She is currently in post production on her latest film, Desert Hot Springs. Johnson is also Assistant Professor of Art at Williams College where she teaches introductory and advanced level classes in video production and theory. She received her B.A. from Williams College and an M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego.

The creation of the video installation has been sponsored by the Williams College Center for Technology in the Arts and Humanities (CTAH). This exhibition was organized by Lisa Dorin, Assistant Curator, with the artist.

The Williams College Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
Admission is free and the museum is wheelchair accessible.
Contact: Suzanne Augugliaro, Public Relations Coordinator, 413.597.3178

Williams College Museum of Art
15 Lawrence Hall Drive, Ste 2 MA 01267
Williamstown

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