PHAOS, 2010 Single-channel video, sound composition, installation. Courtesy the artist.
Monika Weiss: PHAOS As part of The Sixth Borough
Governors Island, New York
June 5 - September 19, 2010
Building 404 B, second floor
Colonel's Row on Governors Island (10 South Street)
Fridays 12pm to 4pm, Saturdays and Sundays 12pm to 5pm
Artists
Amelia Biewald | Mary Walling Blackburn | Daniel Bohzkov | Adam Cvijanovic | Teresa Diehl | Pablo Helguera | Natasha Johns-Messenger | Kaarina Kaikkonen | Andrea Mastrovito | Alan Michelson | Clive Murphy | Trong Gia Nguyen | Luis Gonzales Palma | Marina Rosenfeld | Ted Riederer | Raimundo Rubio | Vadis Turner | Monika Weiss | Wendy Wischer
Curators
Manon Slome and Julian Navarro
From Press Release:
Monika Weiss' installation PHAOS is a poetic investigation of the relationship between place and memory. The Greek word "Phaos" (translation means "light"), also is etymologically related to the word "phantom" (illusion, unreality). At the core of this project is the implied possibility of an alternative reality coexisting within a given space and time. Composed of sound environment, projected video, and a floor sculpture of found objects, antique books and drawings, the installation alludes to both the physical and metaphorical journey by water to the Island, and then back again to the Mainland.
Upon entering the installation, viewers hear the edited sounds of water and motorized machinery mixed with whispering and singing. The many layers of sound overlap and erase each other, reminding viewers of their recent journey to the Island. Small objects covering the main floor in the room include books and maps published before 1945, as well as military field telephones from a previous era. Scattered among them are small-scale graphite and charcoal drawings created by the artist on maps and pages torn from old books. In the adjacent room there is a single channel video projection montage of the journey to and from the Island. Rhythmic images of the river overlap with close-up views of book pages, various documents, and the military objects. In another sequence, the artist dressed in black is lying on top of the archive of books as she blindly inscribes around the perimeter of her body, leaving traces of charcoal and graphite marks.
For more information about The Sixth Borough exhibition visit www.nolongerempty.org.
Directions:
Free ferries run to Governors Island from the Battery Maritime Building (10 South Street, Manhattan), on Fridays from 10am-3pm hourly, and Saturday and Sunday, at 10am, 11am, and every half hour until 5:30pm.
