life on
mars
55th Carnegie International
5.3.08-1.11.09
Featured Artists
- Doug Aitken
- Kai Althoff
- Mark Bradford
- Vija Celmins
- Phil Collins
- Bruce Conner
- Cao Fei
- Peter Fischli & David Weiss
- Ryan Gander
- Daniel Guzmán
- Thomas Hirschhorn
- Richard Hughes
- Mike Kelley
- Friedrich Kunath
- Maria Lassnig
- Sharon Lockhart
- Mark Manders
- Barry McGee
- Mario Merz
- Marisa Merz
- Matthew Monahan
- Rivane Neuenschwander
- Manfred Pernice
- Susan Philipsz
- Noguchi Rika
- Wilhelm Sasnal
- Thomas Schütte
- Ranjani Shettar
- David Shrigley
- Paul Sietsema
- Rudolf Stingel
- Katja Strunz
- Paul Thek
- Wolfgang Tillmans
- Rosemarie Trockel
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- Andro Wekua
- Richard Wright
- Haegue Yang
Audio/Video Library
Artist's Lecture: Haegue Yang
Posted 10|13|08
Artist's Lecture: Ryan Gander
Posted 09|29|08
Remainder, a new process/performance by Attack Theatre: Phase one
Posted 09|23|08
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Attack Theatre: Remainder, Phase Two
Thurs., Jan. 8
Attack Theatre dancers return to Carnegie Museum of Art for Phase Two of Remainder, a 10-month process/performance inspired by Life on Mars.
Daily film screenings of Sharon Lockhart's Pine Flat in Carnegie Museum of Art Theater
2:00 p.m. daily
Additional screening Thursdays at 5:00 p.m.
Free with Museum admission
Running time: 138 min.
schedule is subject to change
Life on Mars High School Audience Engagement Project
Made in China
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At the bottom of the grand staircase I listened to the rhythmic sounds of clinks, drips, tinks, and plinks echo as I sat watching Cao Fei's video Whose Utopia?
The video starts off with machines in a light bulb factory. It goes through showing the assembly line processes of different machines creating light bulbs. In a way this is like life, the factory represents the structure and order of our industrial society and we each have our own job or purpose in life that adds to the end result.
Suddenly a few workers begin dancing in these dreamlike sequences amongst the machines. Also the video is surrounded by murals depicting steelworkers in an airy dreamlike way, which matches Fei's video. The dancers with their stoic faces are expressions of the factory workers, reflecting their thoughts and feelings.
The movements of the dancers are slightly rigid showing that it is difficult for the workers to fully let go of their inhibitions in the strict traditional environment in post-Communist China.
I think Cao Fei captures the repetitive feeling of the growing industrial mass produced world today. It's becoming a scary thing, like something out of a science fiction novel.
Posted by Tyler
4 Comments
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tkd 06|10|08
I wished to comment on the idea of the dancers who, as you stated, move among the oblivious Chinese workers, creating a contrast between the two very different levels of expression and personality of the workers and the dancers. But this is assuming that the dancers are real in a physical sense, because once they are recognized as not dancers among workers, but rather the true personified expression of the workers, then the "contrast" discussed above takes on new form.
So, OK, now there are these dancers that are only present in the combined emotional expression of the factory workers and as they sit doing their mindless and repetitive tasks, their hearts dance as a means of escapism.
This theory, however, does not still fit with this idea of contrast when the style and location of the dance as well as the facial expressions of the dancers are taken into account. When one thinks of a dance it is generally thought of as one of the purest and most energetic forms of expression, but the dances in Cao Fei's "Whose Utopia?" are very different. Actually, they are very similar to the factory workers in the following sense: There is a rigidity in the dances and in the faces of the dancers, especially regarding the women wearing the costume that resembled a peacock. This stiffness illustrates the difficulty that the workers have in expressing themselves in an environment centered on strict tradition and on repetition.
Therefore, the dancers do not serve as a medium in Cao Fei's piece to reveals the monotony of industrial life through contrast, but serve to illuminate the deepest feelings of the factory workers through an alternate self. By this, the artist comments on the social and personal issues that arise from the way of life depicted in "Whose Utopia?"
jen 06|21|08
The first comment, in-fact, represents my entire interpretation for the most parts. The dancers are a window to the human aspect of the industrial footage, the hearts and minds of the living,breathing,thinking workers.
oyec 06|22|08
Tyler, thanks for reminding me of the context of this piece--the Grand Staircase with the great murals romanticizing the workers of Pittsburgh during the industrial age. I had questioned the placement of Cao Fei's work in the exhibition. Thanks to your insight, it makes sense.
Tyler 06|26|08
Thank you for your comments. I see the details that tkd pointed out and now when I look at the piece I experience it differently.