Reentry New York City - Studies for Synthetic Meteors
September 21, 2006- October 21, 2006
Reception: September 21, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
540 W 21st St
Reentry: New York City merges iconic night cityscapes with HD
computer simulations in a series of studies for a daring new public art
project: synthetic meteor showers in the Manhattan sky. Evoking the
spectacle of the Apocalyptic Sublime painting movement and the audacity of
Land Art, these new simulations created by
Bill Dolson during his Eyebeam
residency will be on view Sept. 21 through Oct. 21, with a special opening
reception Sept. 21, 6-8pm. The exhibition is open to the public Tuesday
through Saturday from 12-6pm and is free of charge with a suggested
donation. Eyebeam is located at 540 W. 21st Street between 10th & 11th Aves
in Chelsea.
Reentry: New York City contains twelve HD videos of synthetic meteor showers
envisioned as luminous, ephemeral drawings in the upper atmosphere that will
persist for only seconds or at most, minutes. While quite fantastic, the
studies are conceived to demonstrate the technological feasibility of the
project, established with the contributions of scientists at agencies such
as NASA, Ames Research Center and Los Alamos National Laboratory, among many
others. Technical and conceptual background information will be explained in
an animated demo, short documentary and printed handouts accompanying the
exhibition.
Reentry: New York City uses new technologies to draw on the tradition of the
early large scale land art first produced in the 1970s by such innovators as
Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, Robert Morris and Walter de Maria, evoking
the same sense of daring, wonder and existential awareness which the scale
of these seminal works produced. Updated in a scientifically inspired
gesture, the synthetic meteors avoid the permanent monumentalism of earlier
land art by their dynamic and ephemeral nature.
Reentry New York City recalls the Apocalyptic Sublime, a painting genre of
the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Britain, in both content and
intent. Leading artists of the time including Benjamin West, William Blake
and JMW Turner produced popular Apocalyptic Sublime works depicting
apocalyptic themes such as The Deluge or scenes from the Book of
Revelations, often in urban settings and frequently featuring comets or
meteors. The projections and screens in Reentry will be presented salon
style. However, in the two hundred years since the Apocalyptic Sublime, the
purview of art has been extended from the depiction of an apocalyptic event
to the physical staging of one, the grandeur of the proposition, both
commenting on and questioning our own spectacular society.
Dolson is simultaneously exhibiting digital C-prints of frames from these
video studies at Photographic Gallery, 252 Front Street (South Street
Seaport Historic District) in New York City. The exhibition, Trajectories:
Carter Hodgkin &
Bill Dolson opens September 28 with an artists' reception
6-9 pm.
For information on Dolson's Sky/Ground works, including Synthetic Meteors,
along with biographical and technical notes, please visit
http://www.billdolson.com/
Eyebeam supports the creation, presentation and analysis of new forms of
innovative cultural production. Founded in 1997, Eyebeam is dedicated to
exposing broad and diverse audiences to new technologies and media arts,
while simultaneously establishing and demonstrating new media as a
significant genre.
Eyebeam's programs are made possible through the generous support of
Atlantic Foundation, Time Warner Youth Media and Arts Fund, the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual
Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Alienware, the Jerome Foundation,
the Helena Rubinstein Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, the Bay Branch
Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, the New
York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the David S. Howe Foundation, the
Lerer Family Charitable Foundation and the Sony Corporation.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show