H A R V E Y
G A L L E R Y
Exhibition Dates: January 27-February 26, 2000
Wed-Sat: 11:00 to 6:00
537 Broadway at Spring (2nd Floor)
New York, NY 10012
Opening Reception: January 27, 6-8 PM
Tel. 212 925-7651/Fax 212 966-0439
E M I L Y H A R V E Y G A L L E R Y P R E S E N T S:
C A R O L E E S C H N E E M A N N
V E S P E R S P O O L: An Installation
with V O L U P T U O U S: New Iris Prints
Carolee Schneemann has been a major force in transgressive art. Her work has influenced the entire tradition of performance art and created the context in which the sacred erotic entered visual art as a primary subject.
Vespers Pool, her most recent media work, integrates slides, found objects and six channels of projected video detailing six-second sequences in the life and death of a companion cat. The images, photographed over an eight year period by the artist, capture ardent kisses between cat and human, invoking interspecies communication and subverting powerful cultural taboos.
Vespers Pool is a continuation of Schneemann�s commitment to
the dissolution of boundaries. Relying on dreams and signs,
the work moves between conscious and unconscious worlds,
melding realms that are commonly kept apart. This video
installation fractures distinctions between human and animal,
reason and the irrational, even between life and death. -
Eleanor Heartney
Vespers Pool was edited at Railyard Production and Media in San Antonio, Texas. It was commissioned by and first exhibited at [ArtPace] A Foundation for Contemporary Art/San Antonio, Texas and is presented at the Emily Harvey Gallery with their collaboration.
Voluptuous is a series of large new Iris prints. Some further the themes of Vespers Pool with kaleidoscopic images of cat and human. Others overlay images from Vespers Pool with visual fragments of the oil routes crossing Kosovo. All are visually rich and complex. They were produced with Andrew Graham at Colorworks, Portland, Maine.
Vespers Pool and Voluptuous represent a completion of an important cycle of Schneemann�s work beginning with Infinity Kisses which was first shown in the Emily Harvey Gallery in
January l987.
As a media artist, Schneemann first built kinetic sculptures in 1963. An electronic projection system was developed with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), 1966, for �Snows.� More recently, �Mortal Coils� shown in her New Museum of Contemporary Art retrospective, l997, merged motorized elements with visual projection. She has published widely, and forthcoming editions include her lectures on the body and perception from MIT Press and a selection of her letters, edited by Kristine Stiles, from John Hopkins University Press.
Emily Harvey
S. Polo, 322
30125 Venice, Italy
Tel 39 041 522 6727
Fax 39 041 523 5147
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
