Ninja vs Penguin

Penguin June 27th, 2008

Paul McCarthy’s “Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement: Three Installations, Two Films” at the Whitney:

The show focuses on a core strand of McCarthy’s work: the use of architecture to create perceptual disorientation in the viewer through spinning mirrors, rotating walls, projections, and altered space.

the show of about 22 works dating from 1966 to the present includes three major sculptures, two early short films and assorted drawings, photographs and videos.

Two basic motifs connect the various pieces: the room and rotational movement, or spinning.
[...]
“Spinning Camera, Walking, Mike Cram Walking” that Mr. McCarthy made by rotating a camera on a tripod in a mostly empty room. The view goes round and round, alternating bright windows and dark walls and occasionally giving a glimpse of a man walking in circles in the room.

“Mad House”… consists of a large steel-framed wooden box mounted on a powerful motor. A door in the box reveals a room with a padded seat inside. (There are also three square windows.) When turned on, the room rotates at high speed while inside the chair rotates too, though not necessarily in the same direction or at the same velocity.

[In] “Couple”,… Mr. McCarthy set the focus on his camera at two feet and then roamed around a room with it, creating a blurry, aimless tour. Two naked people, a man and a woman, appear intermittently.

In “Spinning Room,”… [f]our video cameras rotate on a gleaming high-tech machine within a square, walk-in enclosure made of rear-projection screens. Images recorded by the cameras pass through computers and then to projectors stationed outside the enclosure. The projectors direct streaming video pictures of people inside onto the screens.

- NYTimes

The show runs through Oct 12 at the Whitney.

In July, the Whitney will open “Paul McCarthy: Film List”:

McCarthy began making films as a student in the 1960s, and his current exhibition on the Whitney’s third floor includes two rare 16mm films screening for the first time in decades. In conjunction with his exhibition, McCarthy has curated a film program that brings together works by, among others, Stan VanDerBeek, Francis Picabia, Walt Disney, Kurt Kren, Yves Klein, and Bruce Conner.

This portion runs from July 11 through Sept 28.

-Penguin

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Tags: Exhibits, Installations, NYT, Paul McCarthy, Whitney

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