GUNILLA JOSEPHSON
Houses and Whispers
Curated by Stuart Reid
September 17 to December 31, 2016
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 17, 3pm
Hot Talk: Saturday, September 17, 2pm
Houses and Whispers, a survey of recent video work by Gunilla Josephson, acknowledges the subtle energies, quiet voices of residual, intermural memories. The assemblage of multi-channel video installations, distributed through the many rooms and parlours of historic Rodman Hall, infuses the old house with flickering presence. Taking on the narrative arc of a grand voyage, many of the works chart a passage through the fleeting, at times abstract, glimpses of life as a sequence of operatic moments, at once universal and intimately personal. Houses and Whispers marks a departure of sorts in Josephson’s practice—a move away from a linear filmic narrative towards sustained video portraiture as a means of suspending time for contemplative viewing. The artist writes: “The face, isolated and observed closely over time, with all its minute variations, greater emotional repertoire and its exposed naked presence, becomes a drama in itself. Truth and fiction collapse into each other.”
Image: Gunilla Josephson, production photo from Houses and Whispers, 2015, 6 Channel video. Image: Gunilla Josephson.