Project: Projection
Installation art is, to me, the most luxurious medium of artistic expression, while simultaneously one of the most pretentious. It’s difficult not to chuckle at the things some artists come up with when they have a large space and a large amount of time at their disposal. At the same time, though, I’ve been known to fall in love with the absurd at first sight… I am evangelical about M/M Paris, regardless of whether or not they’ve sold their souls; and though I find fewer and fewer arguments to defend Matthew Barney to naysayers, I accept his genius almost unconditionally, even as artists as relevant at Kiki Smith continue to try my patience. There is, however, someone we may be able to agree upon: Paul Chan.
I invited you on my trek through the Guggenheim with Cai Guo-Qiang, who’s been established and working since the 80s, but I have to admit that I dismissed him until quite recently, and only took notice because of my obsession with Chan. Large-scale lighting installations may seem like the visual equivalent of a mind-numbing Richard Chartier sound engineering experiment, but I promise, Paul’s work is just as exciting as tigers, UFOs and explosions (and just as appropriate to view while listening to M.I.A.).
1st Light (2005).
