“Unspeakable: Atlas, Kruger, Walker" upcoming at the Hammer Museum
Blouin Art Info covers Unspeakable the Hammer's exhibition, opening January 20, which features the work of UCLA Department of Art Professor Barbara Kruger.
"Unspeakable - forthcoming exhibition at the Hammer Museum is a selection of video installations showcasing the emblematic works by American artists Charles Atlas, Barbara Kruger, and Kara Walker.
The works, created over the last decade in a series, use unique and varied strategies of montage, direct address, and narrative imagery, to propagate their art. At "Unspeakable", Atlas’s work comprises of a five-channel video installation titled 'The Tyranny of Consciousness', which was featured in the 2017 Venice Biennale. The montage comprises of 44 saturated sunset images, with an overlay starring the voice of American drag queen Lady Bunny. In what seems to be a stream of consciousness rant about life, peace, avarice, greed, and the future of our planet at the outset, is filled with the artist's deep ruminations on our complex and disturbing times. Lady Bunny, known for her gigantic blonde wig and larger than life personality, appears at the end of the video cycle, where she sings a disco song filled with longing and love. On its opposite screen appears a huge digital clock, counting down from 18 minutes to zero, the approximate time it takes the sun to set.Kruger’s "The Globe Shrinks" is a four-channel, 13-minute compilation of video and text that narrates, in a series of scenes and skits, the conflicting coexistence of kindness and brutality. In the video, Kruger blends tense and intimate performances, while establishing an emphasis on the possibility of agency rather than the inevitability of exploitation.
In the works of Walker, one of the strongest voices in contemporary art, aspects of race, humanity, and the deep wound of slavery is an underlying theme. In his featured work at "Unspeakable", Walker’s signature silhouettes play out haunting emotional scenarios. His photoplay features flat hand puppets set against vividly colored backgrounds, accompanied by a soundtrack of country music. Working on the scale of history painting, Walker puts bodies in pain and transformation at the forefront of our consciousness.
Unspeakable: Atlas, Kruger, Walker: Hammer Contemporary Collection will be on view from January 20, 2018, to May 13, 2018, at the Hammer Museum, Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA."— Jan. 9. 2018
This post originally appeared on the Blouin ArtInfo website.