Apr 28–Aug 6, 2017

Myths of the Marble

About

The Institute of Contemporary Art presents Myths of the Marble, a group exhibition conceived and produced in collaboration with the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK) in Norway. The exhibition, co-organized by Alex Klein, Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE’60) Curator, ICA, and Milena Hoegsberg, Senior Curator, HOK, considers how the “virtual” has been engaged by a select and varied group of contemporary artists as a way to image and imagine the world as both a site of possibility and as a set of limitations.

Although “virtual reality” might conjure associations with early cybernetic theory and computer animation, today “virtuality” permeates both physical space and online experience. At a moment when the capacity to depict the world in high definition has never been greater, reality is itself increasingly articulated as a construction. In this respect, it is essential that the “virtual” be seen not simply as an escapist technology promoted by Silicon Valley, but reclaimed as a metaphor or proposition to navigate lived sociopolitical experience.

While the exhibition troubles the line between the analog and the digital it also reflects back on the context of the museum and the body of the viewer. In so doing it suggests a more nuanced approach to technological production (be it hard, soft, or wet) that insists on materiality and the mobilization of a new political imaginary. Here, the virtual is a space of potentiality, a space in which to explore material agency and to push against, to move beyond, and to reflect back on human limitations. As a result, Myths of the Marble considers alternative forms of virtuality that meditate on extensions of the body, ecological formations, and architectural space and that emphasize the time-bound, the perceptual, and the haptic.

These ideas are explored through a wide range of mediums from painting, sculpture, and installation to video, 16mm film, and VR-technology by an international group of artists.

ICA and HOK have co-commissioned seven new works, and will also co-produce a fully illustrated catalogue published by Sternberg Press with contributions by scholars Tom Holert and Homay King.Ane Graff_What OscillatesCayetano Ferrer_Endless ColumnsDaria Martin_Soft MaterialsIgnas Krunglevicius_Skin CurrenciesRachel de Joode_Soft InquiryFlorian Meisenberg_Defective GodsShahryar Nashat_Hard Up for SupportSondra Perry_IT’S IN THE GAMESusanne M Winterling_Glistening TroublesJacolby Satterwhite, En Plein AirMyths Install 1Myths Install 2Myths Install 3Myths Install 4Myths Install 6Myths Install 7Myths Install 8Myths Install 9Myths Install 10Myths Install 12Myths Install 13Myths Install 14Myths Install 16

Screening at IHP: They LiveConcert on the Terrace with Skylar Spence, Eyeliner, death’s dynamic shroud.wmv, and Plastic Ivy

Featured ArtworksAne Graff_What OscillatesCayetano Ferrer_Endless ColumnsDaria Martin_Soft MaterialsIgnas Krunglevicius_Skin CurrenciesRachel de Joode_Soft InquiryFlorian Meisenberg_Defective GodsShahryar Nashat_Hard Up for SupportSondra Perry_IT’S IN THE GAMESusanne M Winterling_Glistening TroublesJacolby Satterwhite, En Plein Air
Installation ViewsMyths Install 1Myths Install 2Myths Install 3Myths Install 4Myths Install 6Myths Install 7Myths Install 8Myths Install 9Myths Install 10Myths Install 12Myths Install 13Myths Install 14Myths Install 16
Thu, Jul 13, 2017, 7PM
Screening at IHP: They Live
Books & Editions
Myths of the Marble book cover
Myths of the Marble is an exhibition that pushes against idealizations of digital tools and virtual space. In an exhibition that brings together projects by eleven international artists, we reencounter our bodies as lived, felt, racialized, and gendered realities that are touched and touching, alongside our constant companions—the internet and the screen. Co-curated by Milena Hoegsberg, Senior Curator at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK), and Alex Klein, Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE ’60) Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (ICA), this timely group show also marks the first time collaboration between the two institutions, which share a commitment to continuously exploring how artists negotiate critical issues of our time. The resulting volume is thus a record of the exhibition as it was staged in the two different manifestations at HOK and ICA and a critical reader with new scholarship by critics Tom Holert and Homay King.
Dimensions
9.25 x 6.25 inches
ISBN
9783956792380
Pages
208
Binding
Hardcover
Publisher
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK), Norway, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, & Sternberg Press
Year
2018
$38.00
ISBN 9783956792380
Publication Date
2018
Authors
Edited by Alex Klein and Milena Hoegsburg, with essays by Homay King and Tom Holert
Designer
Mark Owens
Authors
Edited by Alex Klein and Milena Hoegsburg, with essays by Homay King and Tom Holert
Publisher
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK), Norway, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, & Sternberg Press
Price
$38.00
Support for Myths of the Marble has been provided by The Inchworm Fund, the Royal Norwegian Consulate General, Dorothy & Martin Bandier, Charles X Block, Stephanie & David Simon, Brett & Daniel Sundheim, and Caroline & Daniel Werther. Additional travel support was provided by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA).