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Email PageWESTERN UNION: Small Boats
October 25, 2007- November 17, 2007
Reception: October 25, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Isaac Julien
Metro Pictures
519 W 24th St Isaac Julien Western Union Series No. 2 (Flight Towards Other Destinies 1) (2007) Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures |
To escape deplorable economic and human rights conditions, thousands of African and Asian “clandestines” depart each year from North Africa on the 100-mile journey across the Mediterranean Sea to the southern coast of Sicily. Setting off in larger boats they are transferred mid-sea to highly overcrowded smaller fishing boats where they are left to drift for days on end until they are sighted by the coastguard or sink. Local fishermen often spot the boats first and have been complicit in what is frequently described as the “Sicilian Holocaust.”
Known for his extravagantly beautiful filmmaking, Julien depicts the picturesque seaside village of Agrigento and the grandeur of Palazzo Gangi (famed location from Visconti’s masterpiece “The Leopard”) in stunning juxtaposition to the deadly voyage. Employing a suggestive, non-representational cinematic style, “Western Union” subverts strict narrative, creating a collage of sound and image. Throughout the film, choreographer Russell Maliphant has created a series of vignettes echoing and rearticulating these dramatic voyages.
“WESTERN UNION: Small Boats” is the final installment of Julien’s trilogy about journeying across continents and cultures that includes “True North” (2004) and “Fantome Afrique” (2005).
Recent solo exhibitions include the Pompidou Centre in Paris (2005), MoCA Miami (2005) and the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2006). Julien is represented in the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim and Hirshhorn collections.
Julien’s theatrical collaboration with Maliphant, “Cast No Shadow,” will be presented at BAM, November 6 and 8-10. The work is a commission by PERFORMA, the international biennial of performance art. www.performa-arts.org
Art Reviews of WESTERN UNION: Small Boats
| New York Times November 2, 2007 | Martha Schwendener | "Isaac Julien’s latest film installation is like a slow, aching spiritual: full of beauty but with a tragedy at its core. The calamity here concerns sub-Saharan Africans who board boats in Libya or Tunisia and set out for Sicily. Many never reach their destination — or if they do, are rejected by an immigration system as illegal intruders...." |
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