EXHIBITION

Julianne Swartz and Ken Landauer: Miracle Report

GRAND CENTRAL ART CENTER, 01/19/2014 - 05/11/2014

ABOUT

Julianne Swartz and Ken Landauer spent their Social Studies residency at the Arizona State University Art Museum looking for miracles. The artists explored the miraculous through people’s perceptions of it in their lives, interviewing students, school children and community members of all ages and backgrounds. They combined their findings in an installation of fleeting vignettes playing on all of the available sound and video equipment in the museum’s possession. In the words of the artists, “Our installation strives to embody some beauty, some hocus-pocus and some unexplainable magic.”

The artists’ decision to focus on people’s hands provided the comfort of anonymity as participants shared intimate stories. They filmed at various locations, using only the Arizona sun to highlight the hands against a shrouded background, an effect that preserves and enhances the mystery of the miracle. Throughout their reporting on miracles, the artists grappled with the balance between the sacred and profane, belief and skepticism. This complexity is reflected throughout the installation in the video vignettes, the darkness of the gallery and the layering of sound.

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APT ARTISTS ON VIEW

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