[Back to artist listing] SEEKING EDEN THROUGH ILLUSION
Matt Calderwood, Mika Rottenberg, Guido Van der Werve
November 15–December 31, 2008

On Thursday, December 25, catch Seeking Eden Through Illusion back to back every hour, from midnight to midnight!

MTV 44 1/2, the outdoor, gilded screen located in the heart of New York City’s Times Square, will continue its video exhibition series curated by Creative Time with three works by emerging artists beginning November 15. The films shown will include: Matt Calderwood’s Screen, Mika Rottenberg’s Julie, and Guido Van der Werve’s Nummer Acht: Everything Is Going To Be Alright. The program is entitled Seeking Eden Through Illusion, and selections were made by Creative Time curator Mark Beasley.

Each of these works create a tension between the viewer, artist, and place. Bizarre juxtapositions of scale and literal inversions of landscape problematize the viewing space and field of vision in the works, while basic narratives extend through each; and the works’ relative calm will contrast heavily with frenetic Times Square.

Creative Time kicked off At 44 1/2 with the overwhelmingly successful presentation of Shallow by Malcolm McLaren, and was followed by selections from Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project, reenactments of classic New Left speeches, and two early works by Gilbert and George.

The larger than life 44 1/2 high definition screen is located on Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets, directly across the street from MTV’s offices and studio. This video program is part of Creative Time’s long history of presenting public art in Times Square.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to continue Creative Time’s seven-year history of presenting video art in Times Square,” said Anne Pasternak, president and artistic director of Creative Time. “We are thrilled to be working with MTV, an organization that has long been at the forefront of music and visual culture, and to support the dreams of artists by presenting their work in the media capital of the world.”

“More than 27 years ago, MTV helped give birth to a new video medium by showcasing music videos,” said Jeff Yapp, Executive Vice President, Program Enterprises, MTV Networks Music & Logo Group. “It’s only fitting that now, by working with Creative Time to feature this amazing group of artists, we’re exposing millions of visitors who travel through the Cross Roads of the World in Times Square to video art.”

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Matt Calderwood was born in 1975 in Northern Ireland. His short videos employ minimal means to depict simple—yet conceptually attuned and inexplicably engrossing—actions. Calderwood's work has been exhibited at The Saatchi Gallery, London, Taxter and Spengemann, New York, and Homemade Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany. He is represented by David Risley Gallery in London.

Guido van der Werve is an Amsterdam-based artist, born in 1977 in Papendrecht, a suburb near Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Van der Werve's work, consisting of performance-based films, has been shown repeatedly in major art and film venues. He received the René Coelho Award (of the Netherlands Media Art Institute) in 2003. In 2007, he went to the Geographic North Pole and turned clockwise for 24 hours, the opposite direction of the Earth's rotation. The film from this performance is titled Nummer Negen, The day I didn't turn with the world (2007). He is represented by Gallery Monitor in Rome, and Gallery Juliette Jongma in Amsterdam.

Mika Rottenberg (b. 1976) is a New York–based artist. Earlier this year she exhibited a solo project at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2006). Recent group exhibitions include “Greater New York,” PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2005) and “Uncertain States of America,” which originated at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo.