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their open hands reaching downward. The artist’s interest in
manipulating architectural elements and in the pictorial representation
of reaching arms can be found in Numbers, a new
work commissioned by SFMOMA. A single video of anonymous
children’s hands is projected out-of-sync onto five different
surfaces to overwhelming effect. The whispering featured in
The Eyes I Remember, however, has disappeared, replaced with
a disquieting soundtrack of gusting winds and ringing bells.
Though the representation of a traditional childhood game
initially may seem allegorical and idyllic, the unsettling aural
element of this work and its self-conscious staging in the
gallery also denote a moment of angst, a flash of memory that
may well be closer to a nightmare. This disjunctive effect is
heightened by the unsynchronized, multiple projection of the
video, which causes the rhythm of the hands to appear manipulated,
disjointed, and inhuman, as if mechanically rendered.
Aside from the immediate formal references to
Minimalism, one can also trace a relationship between Kristin
Oppenheim’s work and Surrealism. Her quest for a pared-down
exploration of the universal unconscious echoes experiments
with automatic writing carried out by poets and writers such
as André Breton and René Char. Similarly, the cheery yet sanitized
skyscapes depicted in Numbers evoke the phantasmagoric
landscapes of surrealist painters such as Yves Tanguy and
René Magritte.
Benjamin Weil
Curator of Media Arts, SFMOMA
The artist would like to extend special thanks to Erin Carden and Rose Allen, performers; Kimberly Hassett,
video producer; Tom Carden, sound producer; and Steve Dye, installation consultant.
The Eyes I Remember (installation view), 2000; Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York.