|
PAST EXHIBITION ::::
Sarkis: Alive and After
Opening Reception: September 21, 2006 5:30 - 7:30pm
Exhibition Dates: September 22—December 9, 2006
Curated by Hou Hanru
Sarkis: Alive and After is the first major US exhibition to examine the new work of Paris-based artist Sarkis, bringing long overdue attention to this prominent figure of the global art scene. Organized by Hou Hanru, SFAI’s new Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, the exhibition presents an installation of over 40 films, a suite of watercolor drawings, poetic texts, photographs, and a site-specific neon work. A public reception will take place on September 21 from 5:30 to 7:30pm. The artist will give a public lecture at SFAI on September 26 at 7:30pm, and a complementary series of rare avant-garde films, selected by the artist as influential to his work, will be screened at SFAI in October and November.
“This complex and enduring project opens up a space in which the audience can enter into a continuous dialogue with the artist, and with the fantastic world that the artist has created through his infinite dialogue with other creators,”says Hou Hanru, curator of the exhibition.
“With Alive and After, SFAI’s galleries become a site of production, a laboratory, a workshop, a place to practice,” Hou explains. “Sarkis’ practice not only includes his own productions, but also the exchanges between himself, his works, and the audience. His work represents the oscillation between exile and freedom, cultural difference and social restructuring, which are highly significant and influential ideas in our age of globalization.”
Download full PRESS RELEASE (92K)
|
|
|
Born in Istanbul to an Armenian family, Sarkis currently lives and works in Paris. Evolving out of his experience as an “exile,” Sarkis’ work can be seen as a meditation on the tensions between memory and space. His works are profoundly concerned with humanity, and, in the words of Hou Hanru, “His works unfold a personal universe from the contrasts between light and darkness, green and red, material and immaterial, appearance and disappearance . . .” Simultaneously, Sarkis illuminates the relationship between cinema and contemporary art. As writer/critic Érik Bullot describes, “At a time when the relationships between cinema and contemporary art are multiplying and questioning the different frontiers of artistic practice, it is enlightening to observe the delicate and violent film work of Sarkis.”
Sarkis's exhibition and residency were generously supported by Etant Donnés The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art, Galerie Jean Brolly (Paris), Lefranc & Bourgeois, John Sanger and Paule Anglim.
To purchase the exhibition catalog, click here
|
|
