Tag Archives: contemporary art projects

Spotlight on Intersections@5: Nicholas and Sheila Pye

Posted on by

The Phillips celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Intersections contemporary art series with Intersections@5, an exhibition comprising work by 20 of the participating artists. In this blog series, each artist writes about his or her work on view.

Pye_coronation

Nicholas Pye and Sheila Pye, The Coronation, 2008. Single channel video with sound. Gift of the artists and Andrea Pollan

The Coronation is an installation project incorporating a blend of experimental and narrative techniques to shape a cinematic perspective that employs visual language commonly used in painting. The installation is composed of three parts, with all three cinematic ‘panels’ playing simultaneously. The concept for the installation was inspired by altarpiece triptychs from the Renaissance and Medieval periods in art history. Our aim was to create a modern allegorical interpretation of the triptych using video and sound. The center component became a conceptual performance based work on a loop, and projected in the portrait format.  The centerpiece is flanked on either side by two life sized figures of a man and a woman also projected in portrait format.  This work is not a narrative in the typical sense, but rather a series of constructed tableaus existing in a theatrical world.

Nicholas and Sheila Pye

Spotlight on Intersections@5: Tayo Heuser

Posted on by
The Phillips celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Intersections contemporary art series with Intersections@5, an exhibition comprising work by 20 of the participating artists. In this blog series, each artist writes about his or her work on view.
Heuser_Untitled

Tayo Heuser, Untitled, 2010. Woodcut, 53 x 38 in. Gift of the artist, 2011. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

My response to The Rothko Room, particularly to his painting Ochre and Red on Red, painted in 1954:

Color, lightness, fullness, sadness, spirituality, silence, movement, an opening towards a distant place. I wanted to keep still, sit down, look and listen for a very long time. Tears. It was like nothing else. The room has perfect lighting and proportions. The paintings breathed. The plain bench was good. This woodcut and sculptural drawing (among several others created in various sizes) is the result of my response to The Rothko Room.

Tayo Heuser

Spotlight on Intersections@5: Lee Boroson

Posted on by

The Phillips celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Intersections contemporary art series with Intersections@5, an exhibition comprising work by 20 of the participating artists. In this blog series, each artist writes about his or her work on view.

Boroson_Fixed Haze

Lee Boroson, Fixed Haze, 2014. 32” diameter, acrylic, acetate, polypropylene, aluminum, stainless steel.

Fixed Haze is a sculpture inspired by the formlessness of fog or mist. In studying this material and perceptual phenomenon I looked for a way of building a modular sculpture that could be both solid and ethereal simultaneously. As one moves around the work, the clear plastic materials manipulate light in a way that allows the sculpture to react to changing conditions and viewpoints.

Lee Boroson