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The Buffalo News
SPACE INVADERS
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WHEN: Through March 23 WHERE: Carnegie Art Center, 240 Goundry St., North Tonawanda ADMISSION: Free INFO: 694-4400
Take a few steps into the darkened rotunda, and around the corner a huge
video projection emerges. Across the room a computer monitor with projected
operating directions for an interactive companion piece also comes into view.
This mildly disquieting arrangement by curator Ghen Zando-Dennis sets the
tone for a very compelling exhibition dealing with intrusion and occupation
of space. "Existing in Ruins," a 35-minute digital video that is included
in this year's Whitney Biennial, was shot in Palestinian refugee camps by
Israeli artist Tirtza Even in collaboration with fellow Israeli Bosmat Alon.
It opens with narrative text concerning an Israeli and Palestinian terrorist
who meet on vacation and overcome mutual distrust to bond. This meeting
frames the viewer's perception of the patchy documentary footage, ambient
sound and disjointed accounts of refugee life that follow. Children cavort among ruins, families banter, and men sit idly in dusty
corners and stare pointlessly - all waiting indefinitely within the tightly
walled environs of the enclave. The fixed camera gaze seems at once invasive
and vulnerable, as walls and other obstacles project into the frame obscuring
visual egress. In Even's digital companion piece, "Occupied Territory,"
the viewer clicks a mouse to travel through the same oppressive surroundings,
now apparently uninhabited but actually containing concealed scenes from the
video. The themes of intrusion and oppression continue with "Untitled
#3," by New York City artist Shannon Kennedy, a seven-minute
impressionistic montage of slow-motion segments shot in New York City
subways, much of it filmed surreptitiously. The passive/aggressive
voyeuristic viewpoint and groaning ambient sound create an ambiguously ominous
tone reminiscent of horror and suspense film genres. Produced in 2000, this
work takes on new significance post-Sept. 11. In "I Thought I was Seeing Convicts," Berlin-based Harun Farocki
focuses on Corchran Prison in exploring the role of technology in social
subjugation. Farocki employs multiple images, often from surveillance tapes
and training films, joined by patently subjective text, to expose the abuse
of power. The implications extend well beyond the concrete prison walls. |
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