something more than feelings:
bas jan ader david claerbout jesper just
october 12 - november 26, 2006
The Rochester Art Center is pleased to present the exhibition Something More than Feelings, an exploration into the integrity of the romantic idea and the notion of failure through the work of three highly acclaimed artists: Bas Jan Ader, David Claerbout, and Jesper Just. While approaching their concerns in distinctly different ways, the artists similarly address themes of loss, conflict, and the deconstruction of relationship in their emotionally charged and conceptually intricate works. In his black and white film I’m Too Sad to Tell You, Bas Jan Ader appears intimately in front of the camera, recording a perpetual act of crying. By means of a straightforward yet ambiguous title, Ader also alludes to a state of emotional turmoil that has no immediate or definite origin, referencing a constant state of melancholy or grief in general. David Claerbout’s The Bordeaux Piece, 2004, is comprised of a series of sixty-nine, 12-minute film sequences, each documenting a single scene of love and betrayal. These scenes are shot throughout the course of a day and in varying locations surrounding a private residence, allowing emotional dramas to unfold and continually repeat themselves under changing conditions. With a separated soundtrack utilizing both headphones and stereo speakers delivering distinct content, the viewer has the ability to select and therefore partially dictate the delivery of content, choosing between the ambient noise of the environment or the dialogue delivered by the actors. Jesper Just’s film No Man is an Island II confronts desire and loss through an ambiguous narrative structure, utilizing traditional cinematic conventions and techniques to amplify the expressive attributes of the characters and the unconventional setting of the experience. Together, these films invite the viewer to consider the emotion and conflict represented across these conceptually varied works.
Artist Biographies:
Bas Jan Ader was born in 1942 in Winschoten, Holland. He received his BFA from the Otis Art College in 1965, and his MFA in 1967 from the Claremont Graduate School. After graduating, he continued his education in philosophy, a discourse which is deeply embedded in his works. He also began to teach at a variety of institutions including, Mount San Antonio College, Immaculate Heart College, and the University of California, Irvine. In 1975, Ader met his death during the second part of a triptych project entitled, In Search of the Miraculous.
David Claerbout was born in 1969 in Kortrijk, Belgium, and currently lives and works in Antwerp and Berlin. He has had solo exhibitions at numerous institutions including: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, Dundee; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and the Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover. He has been included in group exhibitions at: Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Städtisches Museum, Abteiberg; Yvon Lambert, Paris; Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Museum für Moderne Kunst MMK, Frankfurt am Main; Biennale Prague, Prague; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Sammlung Goetz, Münich; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Kunsthalle Vienna, amongst many others. This will be his first exhibition in Minnesota.
Jesper Just was born in 1974 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he currently lives and works. He has participated in numerous international exhibitions at: Momentum 04 in Moss, Norway; Casino Luxembourg in Luxembourg; Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Torino, Italy; Herning Art Museum in Denmark; Midway Contemporary Art in Minneapolis; and Harbourfront Center in Toronto, Canada. He graduated from the Copenhagen Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 2003.
(above)
David Claerbout
Bordeaux Piece, 2004
Single channel wide screen video projection, dv-cam (progressive) transferred to hard disc, colour, stereo over headphones and speakers
13 hours 43 min video
still image Courtesy the artist and Gallery Hauser & Wirth, Zürich London; Gallery Yvon Lambert, Paris New York
Bas Jan Ader
I’m to sad to tell you, 1971
Mary Sue Ader-Anderson-Bas Jan Ader Estate, Courtesy of Patrick Painter Editions
Jesper Just
No Man is an Island II, 2004
DVCAM 4 minutes
Image courtesy of the artist and Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York.