Artists Leslie Thornton and James Richards present an exquisite corpse of found and original footage that includes the inaugural screening of Thornton’s They Were Just People. This chilling exploration of the purpose and repurposing of memory during wartime draws on oral accounts of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, and responds to artist Bruce Conner’s iconic film of the Bikini Atoll nuclear test, Crossroads (1976). Walker artistic director Fionn Meade joins the artists for a discussion about their curated reel and recently commissioned works.
Thornton’s video is the third installment in the Moving Image Commissions, a series that addresses works by key artists in the Walker’s Ruben/Bentson Collection. Richards’s 2015 commission Radio at Night and his video Rosebud (2013) are on view in the exhibition Less Than One.
The Moving Image Commissions will be posted on the Walker Channel through May 31.
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