University of Iowa Museum of Art & CSPS
February 2—March 30, 2008 (CLOSING THIS SUNDAY)
Commissioned and produced by VOOM HD Networks
Johnny Depp. Brad Pitt. Salma Hayek. Winona Ryder.
These are just a few of the more than 30 celebrities, artists, intellectuals, animals, and ordinary people that VOOM PORTRAITS Robert Wilson captures in an innovative and exciting way.
Working since 2004 as an Artist-in-Residence with VOOM HD Networks, A US-Based suite of high-definition channels, renowned avant-garde artist Robert Wilson has created video portraits that combine high-definition’s state-of-the-art clarity with his own distinctive artistic vision. Using stunning colors, innovative music, minimal narrative, and measured movement, these portraits transform the Museum galleries into a high-tech spectacle of art and entertainment.
Producing each portrait is a rigorous collaboration process that takes months to complete. Set design, lighting, music, makeup, movement, props, costume — all this and more must be carefully coordinated.
Wilson works closely with his human subjects to develop settings that recall iconic works of art, history, and popular culture. For example, Princess Caroline of Monaco strikes a starkly elegant pose reminiscent both of her mother, Grace Kelly, in the film “Rear Window,” and of John Singer Sargent’s portrait of “Madame X”; Winona Ryder is the main character, “Winnie,” in Samuel Beckett’s play “Happy Days”; and dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov is posed as St. Sebastian pierced by arrows. In addition, each work feature and individual soundtrack from musicians including Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Bernard Hermann, Michael Galasso, Big Black, and Bach as interpreted by Glenn Gould, Hans Peter Kuhn and Ethel Merman.
During the shoot, Wilson limits his subjects' movements to one or two gestures in very controlled motion. The final products have undergone meticulous editing, and are looped so there is no discernable beginning or ending, creating an endless framed work of art. The effect is a riveting contrast between the still life and the real life. Initially, the final result may look like a still photograph. But then, the sitters perform a simple act — a small movement, a blink, a tap of the foot — and the experience of watching them changes entirely.
The video portraits are shot in both horizontal for television and cinema display, and vertical for gallery presentation on HD plasma flat-screen monitors. As Robert Wilson explains, “They can be seen in museum spaces. They can be seen in subway stops. They can be seen in places where people are queuing in airports. They could be on the face of a wristwatch. They could be on TV. They could be an image in your home. They can be hanging on a wall. They could be in a fireplace – the way we have a fire. On a wall at home, they can be like a window – a window that shows us another world. It’s something very personal. It’s a document of our time. They are what I call portraits.”
The VOOM PORTRAITS Robert Wilson exhibition opened to rave reviews at Simon de Pury & Company and the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York in January 2007 and received further critical acclaim at Ace Gallery (February 2007, Los Angeles). The exhibition continues its international tour at the Triumph Gallery (October 2007, Moscow, Russia), Ekaterina Foundation (October 2007, Moscow, Russia), and MADRA (October 2007, Naples Italy). VOOM PORTRAITS by Robert Wilson returns to the United States in January 2008 for the show at University of Iowa.