September 12 - December 31, 2006
Dutch artist Aernout Mik is known for video installations that stage fictional scenes rooted in reality, producing a dreamy uncertainty about reality. Mik combines filmmaking with sculptural installation to create surreal, often semi-apocalyptic scenarios. Refraction is a three-screen projection that depicts the moments after a supposed accident, with a traffic jam visible behind the wreck. Though police, ambulances, and first aid workers stand in shock, no victims are visible. The video continuously shifts between simultaneous shots of onlookers and wreckage, revealing details and wider views.
Dutch artist Aernout Mik is known for video installations that stage fictional scenes rooted in reality, producing a dreamy uncertainty about reality. Mik combines filmmaking with sculptural installation to create surreal, often semi-apocalyptic scenarios. Refraction is a three-screen projection that depicts the moments after a supposed accident, with a traffic jam visible behind the wreck. Though police, ambulances, and first aid workers stand in shock, no victims are visible. The video continuously shifts between simultaneous shots of onlookers and wreckage, revealing details and wider views.
Aernout Mik: Refraction is part of a series of commissioned works organized and presented by the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, courtesy carlier | gebauer. Generous support for the series has been provided by the Peter Norton Family Foundation and the American Center Foundation.
Aernout Mik: Refraction also received support from the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and The Consulate General of The Netherlands in New York.
Aernout Mik: Refraction also received support from the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and The Consulate General of The Netherlands in New York.
Tuesday Oct 24, 7pm
Discussion: On Catastrophe
Steven Johnson & Dr. Ralph Frerichs
Author Steven Johnson (Everything Bad is Good For You and Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software) speaks with infectious disease expert Dr. Ralph Frerichs, founder of UCLA's Epidemiology Department, about the London Cholera outbreak of 1854. This devastating event, which claimed the lives of hundreds of Londoners, set the course for disaster response in modern cities.
Discussion: On Catastrophe
Steven Johnson & Dr. Ralph Frerichs
Author Steven Johnson (Everything Bad is Good For You and Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software) speaks with infectious disease expert Dr. Ralph Frerichs, founder of UCLA's Epidemiology Department, about the London Cholera outbreak of 1854. This devastating event, which claimed the lives of hundreds of Londoners, set the course for disaster response in modern cities.
Above: Aernout Mik. Refraction, 2005 (detail). Video still. Inset: Aernout Mik. Refraction, 2005 (detail). Video still.