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September 18–November 27, 1999 |
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Initiated by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the offices of
Cultural Services in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, Cöte Ouest
was a collaborative presentation of contemporary French art, with exhibition
sites in many of California's most prominent museums, universities,
alternative spaces, and galleries. For SMMoA, Marie-Ange Guilleminot
recreated her site-specific "intervention," transformation parlor, where
visitors took part in the creation of many tsuru origami (the famous
birdlike symbol of the Hiroshima bombing), which were then fashioned into
garlands and displayed at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in August
2000. SMMoA also presented the first U.S. survey of the work of Pierre
Huyghe, whose renowned film and video deconstructs the process of cinema
through the juxtaposition of real life and real time, emphasizing the
impossibility of separating lived experience from its representation.
Concurrently, SMMoA presented videos by young French artists selected by the
Centre Georges Pompidou's New Media curator, Christine Van Assche. |
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June 18–August 21, 1999 |
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With the installation International Style, Melbourne artist Callum Morton
continued his investigations into the relationship between private and
public space. This new work referenced Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House
(built in Illinois, 1945–1950), known at the time as "a new vision of art
and life." By reconstructing a seminal model of Bauhaus design within the
Museum, Morton commented on the suburban framework that characterizes Los
Angeles, Melbourne, and other urban centers, and on increasingly mobile
lifestyles that engender distracted or incidental modes of perception.
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June 18th–August 21, 1999
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This exhibition presented works influenced by the game of golf, as well as
the presentation of a film made by the artist. Three Artists Play One Hole
of Golf is a twenty-five-minute, 16mm film of artists Sam Durant, Kent
Young, and Kevin Young playing one hole of golf, from tee-off to putt-out. |
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April 1–May 29, 1999 |
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Organized and guest curated by critic and art historian David Pagel, this
exhibition presented a fifteen-year survey of the work of mid-career artist
Jim Isermann, whose work is known for its fusion of painting and sculpture,
abstraction and handicrafts. The first large-scale retrospective devoted to
this internationally recognized West Coast artist, the exhibition consisted
of thirty-four works, including free-standing sculptures, paintings, wall
and ceiling pieces, and several room-size tableaus. In conjunction with the
exhibition, the Museum commissioned a multiple work, the first its Artists'
Editions Program: Isermann designed perforated 16" x 16" vinyl decals in
yellow, orange, red, and blue, which could be arranged in his signature
"overall" pattern. The first comprehensive, fully illustrated catalog of
Isermann's art, with essays by the curator and critic/art historian Michael
Darling, accompanied the exhibition. |
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January 8–March 13, 1999 |
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Alison Saar's work explores freedom and choice, apathy and resistance. The
Museum presented Traveling Light, Topsy Turvey, and Compton Nocturne, three
monumental sculptures made of wood and bronze, some incorporating sound and
moving images. These figurative hybrids are both human and mythic, sometimes
blurring the line between popular culture and ancient mythologies. This
exhibition also marked the West Coast premiere of Tree Souls, a striking
sixteen-foot-high sculpture made from real trees, which was exhibited at the
Brooklyn Museum in 1996. |
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January 9–March 13, 1999 |
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Reflecting Perna's interest in science fiction and utopian visions of
society, this installation fictionalized the space of a science-fiction
movie set in order to suspend, and perhaps momentarily reverse, assumptions
of what is and isn' t fiction. The exhibition was made possible in part by
the Instituto Italiano di Cultura, the cultural branch of the Italian
Consulate General in Los Angeles, and the cultural office of the Italian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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