Adam Chodzko
Limbo Land and A Place for 'The End'
Arizona State University Art Museum
at the Nelson Fine Arts Center
November 9, 2002 through January 12, 2003
Adam Chodzko: Limbo Land and A Place for The End
In 1996, Adam Chodzko began a series of work combining video with conceptual
and performance art. This on-going series is entitled Flasher and primarily
explores the perception of ending, with its concomitant corollary of beginning.
For his Flasher series, Chodzko shot a series of short, original Hi-8
transferred to mini DV, videos in which he used only the unearthly light
from a single distress-signal flare to illuminate nighttime physical environments
such as mountainsides, pine forests and gardens.
The artist then rented videos from stores throughout London. Taking his
short 50-second works, he cut his videos into the commercial tapes, placing
his work in the end blackness following the rented films' original credits.
Chodzko then returned the videos to the store from which he rented them,
keeping his special editing activities secret. He imagined the next renter
of the video leaving it running past the credits and discovering his signal.
What appeared to be the end of the tape actually now ushered in a new
beginning.
The works in this exhibition continue to examine the theme of apparent
conclusion and finality begun in this early series. They delve into issues
of reincarnation, afterlife and reinvention through subtle suggestion,
rather than express explanation. Chodzko seems to posit that something
happens to the mind and soul once the body has ceased to function. How
memories are formed and what happens to these memories outside physical
boundaries or "frames" is another facet of this theme into which
the artist inquires.
A Place for 'The End' is a still photography/single channel DVD installation,
which includes eight different final scenes of an imaginary film shot
in eight different locations throughout Birmingham, England. Chodzko offered
each of the eight participants the opportunity to choose their own location.
Each participant was asked to select a site that would "frame"
what might be the final scene of an imaginary film. The eight "endings"
chosen alternate with scenes of a woman talking intently on a telephone
while pacing in a room high above Birmingham; these scenes are set against
the backdrop of a panoramic cityscape in which each "ending"
takes place. Through the acted activities of the woman in the scene, Chodzko
implies that the woman is experiencing an "ending." Eight large
black and white C-prints hang in the gallery near the video monitor displaying
Place; the stills afford viewers the opportunity to reflect on each "ending."
A Place for 'The End' visually investigates how individuals form new impressions,
how they assign importance or relevance to a physical locale and how the
mind perceives such a location outside the context of the filmic. Put
another way, how do certain physical environments become romanticized
or attain mythical status after they have been captured on film and, once
so allegorized, how do these landscapes become internalized by individuals?
Limbo Land, a DVD-projected installation, includes audio of a sound artist
as she searches through a diverse archive of recorded atmospheres in an
attempt to create the appropriate soundtrack - at the request of the artist
- of "something about an ending" or "something having gone."
She believes that her efforts have been unsuccessful, when in actuality
she has created the soundtrack for this ending. Chodzko's video visually
interprets the conclusion of a human life, while the soundtrack inadvertently
created by the unidentified sound artist provides the audio. Sound and
video merge, insinuating that there is a peaceful, yet uncertain transition
between the cessation of human life and whatever happens next. Once again,
physical locations become reference points for memory. From parking lots
to snowy hillsides, we are left with impressions of environments the deceased
individual may have experienced, connected with and perhaps romanticized
during his or her lifetime.
This is the first solo exhibition of Adam Chodzko's work to be presented
in a museum in the United States.
Adam Chodzko lives and works in Whitstable, Kent and London. His work
has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Sandroni Rey, Venice, CA; Ikon
Gallery, Birmingham, England; Cubitt, London; Lotta Hammer, London; Galleria
Franco Noero, Turin; Els Hanappe Underground, Athens; and Accademia Britannica,
Rome. His work has been included in the group exhibitions Brilliant!,
Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Sensation, Royal Academy, London (toured);
Bright Paradise, 1st Auckland Triennial, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand;
and in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale; Deste Foundation, Athens; De
Appel, Amsterdam; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scottland; and Project
Art Centre, Dublin. Recent publications this year include a catalogue
published by Film and Video Umbrella and a book published by Bookworks.
John D. Spiak
Curatorial Museum Specialist
Arizona State University Art Museum
SOURCES:
Steven Bode, Will Bradley, Polly Staple, Chris Darke, Jeremy Millar
Adam Chodzko: Plans and Spells
London: Film and Video Umbrella, 2002
Michael Bracewell, Jennifer Higgie
Adam Chodzko
London: August Media, 1999
Adam Chodzko
A Place for 'The End': A Guide to the Locations
Birmingham, England: Ikon Gallery, 1999
For more information contact John Spiak at spiak@asu.edu.
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