Robert Wilson - Voom Portraits, at Bernice Steinbaum Gallery

Robert Wilson, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Voom Portrait, 2006. Courtesy of Bernice Steinbaum Gallery.

February 14 - March 7, 2009

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 14, 7-10pm

In 2004 Robert Wilson approached VOOM HD Networks, a high-definition network of channels owned by Rainbow Media/Cablevision, to support a new high-definition video portrait series.

This video portrait series takes a minimalist approach, but in a more theatrical setting punctuated by Wilson’s iconic lighting and high production values. Portraits are infused with source materials found in the history of painting, design, dance, theater, photography, television, film, and contemporary popular culture. What is especially unique about these portraits is how Wilson situates the subject in a highly constructed or appropriated narrative. Ranging from historical to referential to serious to abstract, these portraits are always poetic biographies of their subjects.

The portraits are shot in the typical horizontal format for television/cinema and in the vertical orientation for exhibition on high-end flat screen monitors.

Large monitors are used with the idea of sizing the subjects at a near 1:1 relationship between viewer and subject.

The portraits are looped so there is no discernible beginning or end, so as to run endlessly as a framed work of art. Each portrait has its own sound score that either draws from eclectic source music or is originally composed by some of Robert Wilson’s most important musical collaborators.

The final result may at first look like a still photograph, but on closer inspection it reveals Wilson’s heightened language of minimal movement, choreographed gesture and precise timing. The high production values, in turn, reveal Robert Wilson’s art in the shocking clarity and precision of high-definition video.

Bernice Steinbaum Gallery

3550 N Miami Ave - Miami, FL 33127

T 305 573 2700 - F 305 573 2722

www.bernicesteinbaumgallery.com