Diana Thater, Exhibition View, Secession 2000
Although her videos almost always take the form of projections, the American artist Diana Thater tries to avoid any association with the passive spectator role that often characterizes cinema. Her installations, which combine architectural and cinematographic motifs, invariably react to specific situations in space. It is not merely the flat and moving pictures themselves that are of significance here, but also the light beam of the projection in space: this has a considerable influence and effect on the viewer, with the viewer's shadow mutating to become one of the figures while at the same time destroying any illusion of empathy that forms the basis of all narration in the cinema.
Diana Thater, Exhibition View, Secession 2000
Diana Thater is presenting a new work entitled "Delphine" in the Main Hall of the Secession. Here images of the sun were taken with the aid of both NASA telescopes and by divers under the sea and are projected by two batteries of videos lying on the floor, each containing nine monitors. A second part of the installation consists of four videos that also feature underwater Delphine projected unto the walls of the Main Hall as irregular and schematic shapes.
Diana Thater, Secession 2000
The material Diana Thater chose for "Delphine" in the Secession is also being utilized at the moment for an exhibition in the Carnegie Museum (Pittsburgh). The artist has also exploited this technique in other projects: e.g. "The best animals are flat animals - the best space is deep space" exhibitions, which she installed in five different museums in North America, ranging from MOMA in New York to the Art Gallery of York University in Toronto. This juxtapositioning of different spaces and exhibitions is also of significance in "Delphine": for instance, the projections that distort the display case of a natural history collection in Pittsburgh also serve to illuminate the naked walls of the exhibition space in Vienna. In "Delphine" Diana Thater continues her treatment of a subject matter that often occupied her in the last few years. Images of domesticated and tamed wild animals offer her a background for querying the presumptions of art interpretation. "Delphine" represents the next step: here she actually worked with wild Delphine under water and was totally dependent on their cooperation and interest. The videos are studies of the relationship between animals and humans, and the ephemeral projections in a darkened room are - to a very large extent - the exact opposite of the museum-like 'white cube'. The viewer's usual concentration on the art work is upset, because spatial orientation becomes ever more tenuous and the art work no longer expresses itself in the form of concrete objects. Our attention, which is attuned to the perception of art, misses a focal point and turns to the gaze itself. This form of involvement of the viewer through reflection on his own gaze is one of the basic themes of Diana Thater.
Diana Thater, Secession 2000
PUBLICATION
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DIANA THATER 32 pages, 12 colored illustrations authors: Matthias Herrmann, Diana Thater, Carol McMichael Reese Secession 2000, ISBN 3-901926-19-4 ___________________ available in the shop |
Diana Thater was born in 1962 in San Francisco. She lives and works in Los Angeles. Exhibitions include: Witte de With, Rotterdam (1994); Kunstverein Salzburg (1996); Kunsthalle Basel (1996); Sculptures, Projects Münster (1997); Kunstverein, Hamburg (1997); Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (1999).
Diana Thater, Secession 2000
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EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2000 |
For further information and photographic material please contact:
Tamara Schwarzmayr
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
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