The Undulation of Something Faintly Familiar
Peggy Ahwesh, Mike Kelley & Ericka Beckman, Sophie Lisa Beresford, Animal Charm, Deville Cohen, Petra Cortright, Jen DeNike, Jesse Fleming, Marc Horowitz, Timothy Hutchings, Josh Mannis, Alex McQuilkin, Stephen Neidich, Michele O’Marah, Peter Sebeckis, Pola Sieverding, Xaviera Simmons, Michael Smith, Molly Surno, Vanity Projects, Kenneth Anger
March 1 - April 5, 2014
Last year while reading several of Nabokov’s novels, I kept coming across the word undulation. Fascinated by the wave-like repetition of the word, its sinuous form so suggestive of the way language itself conceals as much as it reveals, I began to conceive of the concept of this exhibition of all video and film. The Undulation of Something Faintly Familiar, a line from Nabokov’s Pale Fire, is an intervention into processes of meaning and possibilities of action.
My curatorial approach was unconventional, as a video artist myself I saw the installation as an opportunity to create one large new work, comprised from the individual videos and films selected. Isolating certain pieces while creating mounds and sculptural piles of monitors and screens, with the experiential goal of something akin to stepping inside a Nam June Paik. I then invited Rita the founder of Vanity Projects, a nail art and video project space in NYC to collaborate. Taking a cue from the performative content of the exhibition, during the opening reception nail artists will perform themed nail manicures for guests which will broadcast on a live-feed.
The installation grasps at aesthetic pleasure in its collapse, eliciting a choreography of image upon image, sound upon sound, mounting an initiatory experience rooted in a divination. A series of mimetic transferences, melding and overlapping into an anachronistic ensemble, forming a metaphysical hypnotic dance of moving, invincible undulating, undulation.
Jen DeNike, Los Angeles, February 2014
SFAQ Pick: “The Undulation of Something Faintly Familiar,” SFAQ, March 8, 2014.
Peggy Ahwesh, Mike Kelley & Ericka Beckman, Sophie Lisa Beresford, Animal Charm, Deville Cohen, Petra Cortright, Jen DeNike, Jesse Fleming, Marc Horowitz, Timothy Hutchings, Josh Mannis, Alex McQuilkin, Stephen Neidich, Michele O’Marah, Peter Sebeckis, Pola Sieverding, Xaviera Simmons, Michael Smith, Molly Surno, Vanity Projects, Kenneth Anger
March 1 - April 5, 2014
The Undulation of Something Faintly Familiar
EXHIBITION TEXT
PRESS
Down in the Rec Room 1979, 2007
Video, 13:38 min, color, sound
The Scary Movie, 1993
Film on video, 8:16 min, black and white, sound
you got the love, 2010
Single Channel Video
4:35 min, color, sound
Edition 1 of 5
Blind Country, 1989
Single channgel video, color sound, 19:57 min
Sparkling II, 2010
32 min, color sound, Webcam video
Edition 2 of 3, 1AP
Grayscale, 2009/10
Video, color, sound, A video in three acts
Edition 2 of 5, 2AP
Happy Endings, 2006
Video, color, sound, 2:09 minutes, loops continuously
Edition of 5, 1 AP
Player vs. Player, 2004
Video on DVD, 5:00 min, color, sound
Edition 5 of 10
IT, 2010
Single channel, high definition video, color, sound, 11:22 min
Edition 3 of 5, 2 AP
The Celestial Spheres, 2008
HD Video, color, sound, 6:19 min
Edition 2 of 6
Dumb bells, 2002
Single channel video, color, sound, 12 min, loops continuously
Edition 3 of 3, 1 AP
Hanged Man, 2014
Single channel video, color, sound, 10:00 min
Edition 1 of 5
Fucked, 2000
Single channel video
Color, sound
Brownies, 2014
Video projection, color, sound, approximately 30 min
Edition 1 of 5 + 2 AP's
A Framework for New Habits, 2010
Video, color, sound, 2:00 minutes
Edition 1 of 3, 2 AP
Moving, 2013
HD Video loops, 2:47 min, color, sound
Edition 2 of 3 + 2 AP's
Valley Girl, 2002
Single channel video, 2:04, hour, color, sound
Edition 1 of 5 APs
Number 17, Section 1 of 3, 2013
Performance, Segment
Digital Video 5:00 hour color sound
Edition 1 of 3
Dunce vs. Wizard, 2013
Carpet, wood, digital video file, 2:30 min
Unique
EXHIBITION TEXT
Last year while reading several of Nabokov’s novels, I kept coming across the word undulation. Fascinated by the wave-like repetition of the word, its sinuous form so suggestive of the way language itself conceals as much as it reveals, I began to conceive of the concept of this exhibition of all video and film. The Undulation of Something Faintly Familiar, a line from Nabokov’s Pale Fire, is an intervention into processes of meaning and possibilities of action.
My curatorial approach was unconventional, as a video artist myself I saw the installation as an opportunity to create one large new work, comprised from the individual videos and films selected. Isolating certain pieces while creating mounds and sculptural piles of monitors and screens, with the experiential goal of something akin to stepping inside a Nam June Paik. I then invited Rita the founder of Vanity Projects, a nail art and video project space in NYC to collaborate. Taking a cue from the performative content of the exhibition, during the opening reception nail artists will perform themed nail manicures for guests which will broadcast on a live-feed.
The installation grasps at aesthetic pleasure in its collapse, eliciting a choreography of image upon image, sound upon sound, mounting an initiatory experience rooted in a divination. A series of mimetic transferences, melding and overlapping into an anachronistic ensemble, forming a metaphysical hypnotic dance of moving, invincible undulating, undulation.
Jen DeNike, Los Angeles, February 2014
PRESS
SFAQ Pick: “The Undulation of Something Faintly Familiar,” SFAQ, March 8, 2014.