| EDUARDO
SARABIA Project Room November 16–December 28, 2002 |
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Los Angeles–based artist Eduardo Sarabia intertwined fact, fiction, family history, and the search for Pancho Villa’s gold in his installation in the Project Room of the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Sarabia’s potent installation examined the many guises of Mexico's political identity, from the romantic to the corrupt, and explored the artist's own Mexican roots and his relationship to East Los Angeles, where he grew up. The guest curator for the exhibition is Ciara Ennis. | |
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| ART
& FILM IN THE AGE OF ANXIETY: Selections from the 2002 Whitney Biennial September 28–December 28, 2002 |
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The disquieting allure, menace and fragility of contemporary life was examined in Art & Film in the Age of Anxiety: Selections from the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Whitney curator Chrissie Iles selected the six works at SMMoA from the wider offering of video and film of the 2002 Whitney Biennial. The films and videos in the exhibition span the globe in their explorations of real and imagined physical and psychological terrain. The artists included Bosmat Alon and Tirtza Even, Irit Batsry, Jeremy Blake, Christian Jankowski, Alfred Guzzetti and Mark Lapore. The exhibition was the second in the SMMoA Guest Curator Series. | |
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| THOMAS
KOVACHEVICH : PAPER/PLASTIC/PAINT September 14–November 3, 2002 |
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Thomas Kovachevich: Paper/Plastic/Paint, was on view in the Project Rooms of the Santa Monica Museum of Art from September 14–November 3, 2002. With wit, intuition, and paint, Kovachevich transformed discarded plastic packaging materials into more than one hundred intimate and unusual paintings. In a second space at the museum, the artist created a large-scale sculptural installation from brown paper packing tape—a monumental, linear bouquet that changed shape over time in response to airflow, humidity, and entropy | |
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| PROPOSAL
FOR THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN AN OPERA BY MICHAEL WEBSTER AND SIMON LEUNG July 13 –August 30, 2002 |
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Proposal for The Side of the Mountain brought together the work of artist Simon Leung and composer Michael Webster in a potent collaboration that combines the heightened drama and tragic content of a traditional opera with a minimalist conceptual approach. It is simultaneously an opera-film; a four-channel video/sculpture installation; a work of architecture; a stage-set, and a proposal. Proposal for The Side of the Mountain was organized by SMMoA. | |
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| URS
FISCHER : WHAT SHOULD AN OWL DO WITH A FORK Project Room July 13–August 30, 2002 |
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A life-sized female figure clumsily carved from wax melts from the fire burning in her head; the rear-end of a scruffy dog awkwardly wags its mechanical tail. Linked by implication rather than style, this willful selection of disparate works combined to create "What Should an Owl do with a Fork" a site-specific installation by Swiss artist Urs Fischer at SMMoA. | |
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| LITHIUM
LEGS AND APOCALYPTIC PHOTONS: THE IMAGINATIVE WORLD OF JAMES CARTER April 20–June 9, 2002 |
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This exhibition focused on the work of James Carter, "outsider scientist" and author of The Other Theory of Physics. Drawing on Carter's self-published books and pamphlets—rife with mathematical formulae, diagrammatic illustrations, and computer animations—the exhibition explored Carter's alternative theory of the creation of the universe and his do-it-yourself vision of reality. Lithium Legs and Apocalyptic Photons was guest curated by Margaret Wertheim and organized by SMMoA. | |
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| JOHAN
GRIMONPREZ: INFLIGHT LOUNGE "How Do We Know the Sky Isn't Green and We're Just Colorblind?" Project Room April 20–June 9, 2002 |
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Belgian video artist Grimonprez created an environment reminiscent of an airport lounge, complete with television monitors, coffee tables, extra-wide seating, and his version of INFLIGHT magazine. Including more than fifty videos of disaster movies, documentaries, and art films, the video library also featured dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 1997 —Grimonprez's sensational and critically acclaimed study of sky-jacking. | |
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| TIM
ROLLINS +KOS The Virginia Avenue Park Project: A Midsummer Night' s Dream April 2-12, 2002 |
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What began twenty years ago as a temporary assignment to provide an art program for "learning disabled" students became an internationally recognized collaborative force known as Tim Rollins + K.O.S. Rollins works with "Kids of Survival" to create contemporary art that is simultaneously individual and collaborative, as concerned with content as image, and involves the teaching of great books as well as great artists. For SMMoA, Rollins, led a three-day workshop with twelve youths from the outreach program, Virginia Avenue Park Project, which culminated in an exhibition of poetic and fanciful artwork based on William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. | |
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| CAVEPAINTING:
PETER DOIG, CHRIS OFILI, AND LAURA OWENS February 8–March 31, 2002 |
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The work in this exhibition was a visual manifestation of an ongoing conversation between Peter Doig, Chris Ofili, and Laura Owens—three painters who, although working separately, had closely followed one another's artistic practice for several years. The three artists each created a new body of work articulating their overlapping interests and influences, while also responding to the Museum's space. Cavepainting was an artist-directed project organized by the museum. | |
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| MARK
LECKEY: FIORUCCI MADE ME HARDCORE Project Room February 8–March 31, 2002 |
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London video artist Mark Leckey presented Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, a large projection documenting the history of dance culture in the U.K., from northern soul clubs to acid house raves. Sound-tracked by the artist's own music, the collaged video footage enveloped viewers in a heady vortex of rhythm and mood, while shifts in style, gesture, and sound underlined the changing cultural and political landscape. | |
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| MARY
KELLY: THE BALLAD OF KASTRIOT REXHEPI with an Original Score by Michael Nyman December 11, 2001–January 20, 2002 |
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With the new work created for this exhibition, internationally acclaimed artist Mary Kelly continued her exploration of narrative as visual form. The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi recounts the legend, based on factual accounts, of an Albanian boy left for dead on a battlefield in Kosovo, rescued by Serbs, and eventually reunited with his parents. To accompany Mary Kelly's text, renowned English composer Michael Nyman wrote an original choral work, which was performed at the exhibition's opening. The project addressed the traumatic effects of war and its representation in the media, as well as the psychic residue of these phenomena in our everyday lives. | |
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| JASON
MIDDLEBROOK: MUSEUM STORAGE Project Room December 11, 2001–January 20, 2002 |
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The large-scale, frequently humorous installations created by New York artist Jason Middlebrook simulate natural and manmade structures and often center on the act of excavation—be it metaphorical or literal. For his project at SMMoA, Middlebrook constructed a museum storage space that functioned as a site through which to explore the idea of neglect within the institutional context. The installation presented artifacts of a fictionalized history of the museum—bubble-wrapped sculptures, discarded exhibition proposals, renovation plans, and an archival system spun out of control. Weeds and other plant matter colonized both the space and objects, producing a laboratory of "growing" art. | |
