The Walker Moving Image Commissions is an ongoing online series in which artists respond to selections from the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. This second set of new moving image works, which was inspired by rich conceptual legacy of Belgian poet/filmmaker/artist Marcel Broodthaers, premieres pieces by Shahryar Nashat and Uri Aran, with additional screenings of several of Broodthaers’s films.
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.
A discussion with the directors follows the screening.
After their premiere in the Walker Cinema, the new commissions will stream on the Walker Channel through the end of March.
The Walker Moving Image Commissions were initiated in May 2015 with premieres of work by Moyra Davey and James Richards that focused on artist Derek Jarman.
