Weekly Roundup

Carrie Mae Weems. “The Obama Project,” 2012. Production still. Image courtesy of the artist.

In this week’s roundup Andrea Zittel receives an award, Krzysztof Wodiczko projects Abraham Lincoln, James Turrell installs a new Skyspace, and more.

Andrea Zittel has been awarded the 2012 Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts. The award is bestowed “for outstanding achievements in the field of architecture and the arts that conform to Frederick Kiesler’s experimental, innovative conceptions and his theory of correlated arts” and will be presented by the Vienna City Councillor for Cultural Affairs, Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, on November 15 at the New Museum in New York.

Andrea Zittel, as part of the Kiesler Prize, is presenting work at Mariahilfer Straße (Vienna). Andrea Zittel: Artist-Architect underlines the decision of the jury in 2012 who selected the artist primarily for her experimental and innovative work that has extended the dialogue of contemporary art and ideas. In the spirit of Frederick Kiesler, her work is both intellectual and yet deals with real life situations and occurrences. The show runs through December 1, 2013.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc9MzLdbqSg

Krzysztof Wodiczko‘s video projection onto the Abraham Lincoln statue in New York’s Union Square will run for a full month, from November 8-December 9. Abraham Lincoln: War Veteran Projection, co-presented by More Art and the Polish Cultural Institute, will feature the sounds and images of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans projected onto the 142-year-old Lincoln statue.

Hiroshi Sugimoto is presenting works at Museum Brandhorst (Munich) that are publicly displayed for the first time. Revolution displays nocturnal seascapes in large format, which capture the cycle of the moon during a longer period of time. Their unique presentation–the images are tilted by 90 ° –awakens various disconcerting impressions according to the region and latitude they were taken in. This work is on view through February 10, 2013.

James Turrell installed a Skyspace at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. The ASU Skyspace, Air Apparent, is located near the new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 (ISTB4), on the university’s Tempe campus. It sits adjacent to the newly dedicated Diane and Bruce Halle Skyspace Garden, designed by landscape architect Christy Ten Eyck.

Matthew Barney is collaborating with composer Jonathan Bepler on River of Fundament that combines cinema with elements of live performance and opera. The film is loosely based on Norman Mailer’s 1983 novel Ancient Evenings, about Egyptian mysticism and lore. The book’s meditations on reincarnation and rebirth found new form in the artist’s film. The idea of repurposing the book was brought to Barney’s attention by Mailer, who, before his death in 2007, had played the role of Houdini in Barney’s storied art film-cycle Cremaster.

Louise Bourgeois and other artists have work on view at the Ben Uri Gallery (London). Judy Chicago draws works from the Chicago’s personal archive and from public collections in the U.S. and are contextualised for the first time with work by Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick and Tracey Emin who have addressed similar issues in their own distinctive fashion during the latter part of the 20th century/early 21st century. The exhibition will run from November 14 – March 10, 2013.

Barry McGee used a summer residency at the UC Berkeley Art Museum (BAMPFA) to transform the space. Barry McGee is the artist’s first mid-career survey and includes rarely seen early etchings, letterpress printing trays and liquor bottles painted with his trademark cast of down-and-out urban characters, constellations of vibrant op-art painted panels, animatronic taggers, and an elaborate re-creation of a cacophonous street-corner bodega, along with many new projects. The exhibition closes December 9.

Nettrice Gaskins