Walker Moving Image Commissions by Shahryar Nashat, Uri Aran, and Leslie Thornton Announced
MINNEAPOLIS, February 8 2016—The Walker Art Center is pleased to announce the next Walker Moving Image Commissions by Shahryar Nashat and Uri Aran will premiere on February 17, 2016, and the final commission in the series by Leslie Thornton will premiere on April 9, 2016. Following the filmmakers’ premieres in the Walker Cinema, the new works will stream in limited release on the Walker Channel.
The Walker Moving Image Commissions is an online series in which artists respond to selections from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Initiated in May 2015 with work by Moyra Davey and James Richards inspired by Derek Jarman, the second set by Shahryar Nashat and Uri Aran responds to the work of Marcel Broodthaers, and the third installment by Leslie Thornton responds to the work of Bruce Conner. The final premiere in the series by Thornton will be accompanied by a look back at the complete Walker Moving Image Commissions, as all three installments will stream in limited release on the Walker Channel through the end of May 2016.
“The Moving Image Commissions have brought leading artists into dialogue with the Walker’s rich holdings within the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image collection. Each commission has come with a contextual invitation to make new work alongside a consideration of a signature artist in the collection, including to date Derek Jarman, Marcel Broodthaers, and Bruce Conner. Accompanied by essays from Bentson Scholar Isla Leaver-Yap, the world premieres of these new works from an international group of artists began last year with Moyra Davey and James Richards, and now extends to Uri Aran, Shahrayr Nashat, and Leslie Thornton, a truly stellar group of commissions innovating a collection-based platform that we are very excited to continue to build upon,” says Fionn Meade, Walker Artistic Director.
SHAHRYAR NASHAT and URI ARAN
FEBRUARY 2016
Walker Moving Image Commissions: Shahryar Nashat and Uri Aran
Wednesday, February 17, 7:30 pm
Walker Channel premiere: February 18
This second set of new moving image works, which was inspired by the work of Belgian poet/filmmaker/artist Marcel Broodthaers, premieres the pieces by Shahryar Nashat and Uri Aran, with additional screenings of several of Broodthaers’s films. After their premiere in the Walker Cinema, the new commissions will stream on the Walker Channel through the end of March.
Both commissioned artists work closely with found objects and modes of translation in their respective practices. Based in Los Angeles, Nashat makes sculptures, installations, and videos that examine ways the human body interacts with and is represented through material culture. Using stand-in figures, prosthetic technologies, and appropriated objects, his commission poses the question: what are the limits of the “ideal” human form? New York–based Aran explores the discord and substitutions that occur between meaning and memory. His meticulous and intimate assemblages—which often include found objects, appropriated narratives, and customized display structures—lay bare the idiosyncratic systems of personal and cultural knowledge.
LESLIE THORNTON
APRIL 2016
Leslie Thornton with James Richards: Exquisite Cinema
Saturday, April 9, 7:30 pm
Walker Channel premiere: April 10
In connection with the premiere of Leslie Thornton’s Moving Image Commission and the opening of Less than One, curated by Fionn Meade; video artists Leslie Thornton and James Richards present an exquisite corpse of found and original footage. Their curated reel will culminate in the inaugural screening of Leslie Thornton’s They Were Just People (2016). The two artists will be joined in conversation by Bentson Moving Image Scholar, Isla Leaver-Yap for a discussion on their selection and on their recently commissioned works. This third installment in response to Bruce Conner is accompanied by a look back at the complete Walker Moving Image Commissions to-date, as all three installments are posted on the Walker’s website through the end of May 2016.
Walker Moving Image Commissions Project Coordinator: Isla Leaver-Yap
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Major support to present the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection, the Walker Moving Image Commissions, and the Walker Mediatheque is generously provided by the Bentson Foundation.