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October 27, 2006- December 9, 2006
Reception: October 27, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Catherine Yass
Galerie Lelong
528 W 26th St Catherine Yass Still from Lock (2006) |  Catherine Yass Still from Lock (2006) |
In her first solo exhibition in New York, British artist Catherine Yass will present "Lock", a new film shot at the Three Gorges Dam in China's Yangtze River. Projected in two parts on opposite sides of the gallery, the film places the viewer, physically and psychologically, at the center of an icon of China's ambitions for industrial growth. In addition, she will show seven new lightboxes of her distinctively surreal and evocative images, also from China. The exhibition opens to the public on Friday, October 27, from 6 to 8 pm, and the artist will be present.
Yass first became known for her experimentations with photography, creating lightboxes that explore physical and architectural space and how these environments are experienced by their inhabitants. Her signature method involves manipulating both the exposure and development of the film and layering a positive transparency on top of an altered negative. The results are richly colored, ethereal abstractions that embody the dualities of reality and illusion, presence and absence. At once the viewer is given a perspective that is both all-encompassing and nonexistent.
In 2002, Yass used the same concept with her film "Descent," shooting while suspended from an 800-ft crane. An 8-minute pan down the side of a tower that is then projected upside down, "Descent" displayed Yass's minimalist aesthetic and restrained use of time and movement to heighten the tension between one and one's surroundings. "Lock" expounds upon these methods as Yass documents a passage through the Three Gorges Dam. Shot using cameras pointed both forward and backward, the film shows the journey in two viewpoints simultaneously. The austere, immense walls and rows of mooring columns are representative of dreams of industrial power yet recall imagery of ancient temples and pyramids. After moving through the vast and powerful water, the boat is held in a suspended present, within the gates of the lock, as it awaits the close of one end of its journey and the entrance into its next.
Yass has shown in numerous museums and galleries worldwide, including the Tate, London; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; and Tel Aviv Museum of Art. In 2001, she represented Britain at the 10th Indian Triennale, where she was awarded for her portraits of Bollywood stars and Mumbai cinema houses. She was shortlisted in 2002 for the Turner Prize, organized by Tate. In 2003, the Brooklyn Academy of Music premiered Split Sides, a collaboration between Yass, choreographer Merce Cunningham, and musicians Radiohead and Sigur Rós.
Art Reviews of Lock
| New York Times December 1, 2006 | Roberta Smith | "...With a weirdly musical cacophony of bells, whistles, screeching metal and a crackling loudspeaker, the water and the boats begin to rise. You don’t quite realize the immensity of the structures until you notice the tiny figures moving along gangways at the barges’ edges. As a metaphor for the new China, it is pretty intimidating...." |
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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