Friday, April 21, 2006

Maya Lin "Systematic Landscapes" at The Henry Museum : Apr 22 - Aug 3

MAYA LIN



Henry Art Museum Site



Havent always been consistently wowed with her installation work, though a good percentage def' has been innovative, atmospheric and deeply expressive in a way that reflects a consciously designed interpretation/reflection of/on nature and perception. This one both in style, technique and scale looks like its going to be an impressive landscape occupying the Henry's larger gallery. ("Avalanche" pictured above) Certainly worth giving it the time.

From the Henry Art Museum:

"This spring, the Henry devotes its expansive Stroum and East Galleries to a dramatic exhibition of new work by Maya Lin. Systematic Landscapes, organized by Henry Art Gallery Director Richard Andrews, focuses on a trio of large-scale sculptural installations that offer a different means for viewers to encounter and comprehend the landscape. 2x4 Landscape is a vast hill or wave built of 65,000 boards set on end; Wire Landscape, a distorted grid in space, can be walked under or viewed from above. Visitors can walk through Landscape, modeling an actual mountain range near the artist's Colorado home that is sliced into a grid."

"Maya Lin has continuously addressed notions of landscape and geologic phenomena in her work. She has an extraordinary ability to convey complex and poetic ideas using simple forms and natural matierals. She thinks and works in a scale that relates to the land. This exhibition is a meditation on our relationship to landscape, whether direct or reinterpreted via computer or satellite imagery. Wedding a deep interest in forces and forms of nature with a long-term investigation into the possibilities of sculptural form to embody meaning, Systematic Landscapes offers a rich, immersive experience for visitors. Following the model of previous Henry exhibitions of the work of Ann Hamilton and James Turrell, Systematic Landscapes confirms the museum's commitment to the art of our time and to the possibilities of contemporary installation art."

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Lucile Hadzihalilovi's film "Innocence" at NWFF April 14-20



Northwest Film Forum Site

I'm gonna shut it for once and not say anything about this film, other than the fact that I will definitely be seeing it a second time in the theatre and it features some of the finest cinematography I've seen in something like a year ... and there's a helluva lot more to it than just that.

From the NWFF:

"An all-female boarding school sits in the middle of a seemingly endless forest, with a thick, insurmountable wall keeping the outside world from entering this otherworldly community. Inside one of the school's creaking houses, a group of young girls gather around a coffin: its lid opens, and six-year-old Iris climbs out. Iris is quickly introduced to the school's bizarre customs and strictly observed rules, but she grows boldly and perhaps dangerously rebellious as she becomes increasingly curious about the school's central mysteries (Where do the older girls go at night? What lies beyond the outer wall? Will any of them ever be allowed to leave?). A bracing debut from a major new figure in French cinema, the supernatural fairy tale of INNOCENCE has been a critical and audience favorite at festivals around the world."