CURATOR’S LETTER
INTERMISSION
As abstract as time is, it is a concept. We like to generalize the idea of it, but time is in fact a notion that is as individualized as our thoughts. Everyone lives it, thinks it and wastes it, in their own way.
It’s an idea on a global scale that gives a sense of unity, a sense of security, a sense that “we are all in it together,” but in reality we are all on our own clock. Except in some parts of the world, we do live in a kind of World Time that trespasses all borders through the digitized spheres; if only that were true, not just in the electronic bands widths and times. As an artist, time does stand still for ideas. Hence, I reached out to great minds for this issue to get an insight into different perspectives on the subject. A kind of Intermission, to pause, to think, to let the curtain down for a minute and see what happens. Michael Wang, proposes a Drowned World in which our current climate change is reverting nature back to the earth’s First Forest, returning full circle to 300 million years ago. While Roni Horn, records Remembered Words between the years 2012-2013. Talia Chetrit captures that tender age of Sonic Youth and the 1990s or l’Age Ingrat through her photographic diary of her teenage years between the ages from 13-15. Writer Carol Becker expresses perceptions of time and the contemplative space of art. I shot photos of aircraft windows inflight, capturing an Intermission on Airplane Mode through landscapes of skies which are nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Mauro Hertig creates a musical score through the rolling sound of suitcases and airplane engines in The Perfect Passivity, an opera based performance embodying the airport as the Intermission. Hope Atherton casts time. Yngve Holen speaks to neuroscientists about their research into the behavioral psychology of monkeys in The Animal House is Closed. He travels deep into the Amazon to speak to the National Institute for Science Technology and Innovation for Amazonian Biodiversity to discuss the economics of deforestation, as: Of course No one pays the Amazonas for that Function from his ETOPS magazine issues Headache and Amazonas. Writer Brett Littman discusses Isamu Noguchi’s research through never before seen archival photographs by Noguchi himself of his search for Environments of Leisure through a seven year grant to travel across the world. Writer Christopher Bollen travels to Cambodia to photograph every clock he encounters within a 24 hour period in Phnom Penh. Prior to 1975, his birth year, also known as
The Year Zero, owning a clock was punishable by death. Florian Krewer takes a line for walk by essentially killing time. Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili captures the markings of time. Becca Albee dives into geological Deep time. Matthew Barney shares his latest drawing Diana and Actaeon, drawing on classical mythology. Liz Magic Laser hires via Fiverr, the new Task Rabbit app, Zahid the graphic designer from Pakistan who stars in her latest experimental reality TV show, to layout her contribution to this issue coming full circle. Time Pressure follows the lives of five gig workers who rely on work they find through online platforms such as Fiverr under unrealistic time constraints. Francesco Vezzoli invites us into his new studio, filled with collected artifacts from all different periods. Camille Henrot reveals the workings of an Intermission through Wet Job, the breast pump series; expressed through words by Sarah Demeuse, exploring how to give the body a break through mechanisms. The project extends its reach into film, commissioning artists Martine Syms, Ari Marcopoulos and Sarah Morris; each creating an Intermission on the screen. Martine proposes an ideological athlete in the year 2050 ,filmed on a robotic arm morphing human and machine in Capricorn. While Ari captures virtuoso heavy metal speed guitarist Mick Barr defying time through sound in Annwn Current Incarnation. Sarah specifically shoots her film in time to capture the fleeting moment in which the spectacle of the blossoming of the Sakura tree occurs at the infamous Osaka castle, the ghost capital, in her epic fictious documentary Sakura.
With a very special thank you to Chanel for their support.