Catherine Sullivan, exhibition view
The investigation of the constraints and paradoxes of theatrical representation is central for Catherine Sullivan's work. Her film pieces, theater productions und prop-like sculptures are directly and experientially related to acting practice and the schizoid structure arising from the discrepancies between role, person and body. Sullivan is interested in formal techniques employed to code expression as well as in the devices employed to generate and determine the behaviors of the performers. Using the grammar of theater, she successfully reveals culturally inscribed ways of coding gesture and ultimately the defining patterns of the self.
Catherine Sullivan, exhibition view
At the Secession Catherine Sullivan premieres her new piece The Chittendens . Her point of departure is informed by numeric scoring strategies and their potential relation to actors and performance. Strategies of separation, re-combination and variation are echoed in the spatial realization of the film piece shot on 16mm and transferred to digital video. Adopting the Secession's exhibition spaces, Sullivan presents her piece as a 6-channel projection.
Catherine Sullivan, exhibition view
Specifically, Catherine Sullivan developed a choreography based on abstract rules: She assigned 14 singular "attitudes" each to 16 actors. The attitudes are then interpreted according to strict schemes, transferred to a numerical pattern and performed rhythmically in different tempos. To what extent can actions be divided into isolated, quantifiable entities, in analogy to a musical composition? Or, to pose the question differently, to what extent does the random combination of separate poses nevertheless read as a persona? How are self-possession and self-determination articulated between resistance and compliance with the assigned poses?
Catherine Sullivan, exhibition view
Catherine Sullivan connects the purity of an analytical approach and its seemingly contained objectivity with temporal and spatial methods of distortion and displacement. The costumes are based on various 19th and 20th century stereotypes. They offer no relationship for the performers or the audience in form of an identity. While, in earlier works, Sullivan frequently located the action in historical situations, she now based her choice of locations on a quest for the most inflated metaphors for the individual. In the course of her research, Sullivan found the corporate symbol of the insurance company The Chittendens that gives the piece its title: A solitary lighthouse, which – along with other maritime subjects – is a frequent subject in the self definition of US-American companies. The film then was shot mostly in a largely abandoned office building in Chicago that used to house a variety of companies and in a small lighthouse on Poverty Island, near the Wisconsin shore.
Catherine Sullivan, The Chittendens, 2005
Costumes and locations function as arbitrary new systems of reference for discrete manifestations. They result in an accumulation of meaning and gestures. Ultimately the tension between the specific and the universal renders visible the behavioral regimes in their historical and cultural form. Where can the individual create him- or herself as singular, and where do seemingly individual gestures re-inscribe a specific position in a community and an era?
Catherine Sullivan, The Chittendens, 2005
PUBLICATION
The catalogue published in conjunction with this exhibition is placed in the context of an art book and will be co-produced by Tate Modern, London.
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CATHERINE SULLIVAN The Chittendens 64 pages, 41 color illustrations, 18 b/w-illustrations authors: Pierre-Yves Fonfon, Sean Griffin, Zoltàn Krapschutt, Wolf-Dieter Schlünz, Catherine Sullivan Secession 2005, ISBN 3-901926-85-2 ___________________ available in the shop |
Catherine Sullivan, The Chittendens, 2005
CATHERINE SULLIVAN, born 1968, lives and works in Los Angeles.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection): 2005 Catherine Sullivan, Kunsthalle Zurich; 2004 Catherine Sullivan. Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land. house of Alex / house of Peter (and some of those crappy details), Kunstverein Braunschweig; Catherine Sullivan: Getting Out of the 20th Century Alive, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein; Catherine Sullivan – Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land, Giò Marconi Gallery; 2003 Tis Pity She's a Fluxus Whore, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford; 2002 Catherine Sullivan – Five Economies (big hunt / little hunt), T he Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; 2001 Gestus Maximus (Gold Standard), Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne; GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection): 2004 Videodreams. Zwischen Cinematischem und Theatralischem, Kunsthaus Graz; The 2004 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Catherine Sullivan, The Chittendens, 2005
The exhibitions are realized through support of:
Erste Bank – Partner of the Secession
Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur
Wien Kultur
Friends of the Secession
| MICHAEL KREBBER TERENCE KOH | EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2005 |
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
presse@secession.at