Stephen Dean, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY - Volta

Stephen Dean’s Volta
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
November 4 - 20, 2005

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University presents Stephen Dean’s Volta, a façade projection which will be seen from sunset to 11:00 p.m. November 4 to 20, 2005.

French artist Stephen Dean (b. 1968) is known for exploring the experience of color in his films. His previous work, Pulse, was shown as part of the 2002 Whitney Biennial, and several of his videos are currently on view in “Always a Little Further” at this year’s 51st Venice Biennale.

“Stephen Dean’s videos really expand the definitions of painting in that they are concerned with color via the aesthetic qualities of the social and religious rituals that he chooses to film,” said Andrea Inselmann, curator of modern and contemporary art.

Volta, named after the soccer term for an offensive maneuver leading to a spectacular goal, was shot in Brazil at numerous different games, and begins with a close-up of rippling fabric, pulled away to reveal hundreds of Brazilian soccer fans, like the curtain rising before a performance.

The fans remove their colorful shirts, transforming the sea of bright colors into flesh tones. A fabric bunting is passed hand-to-hand through the cheering throng, then disappears. Fists pump the air to an incessant drumbeat. The viewer does not see any of an actual ball game—just the sounds and colors of the fans in the stadium. Humans, passionate and unpredictable, become the medium rather than the subject. Volta is not about a story, but about rhythm.

Stephen Dean’s work is held in many private, corporate, and public collections, among them the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Collection Jumex, and the Israel Museum. He is represented by Henry Urbach Architecture in New York.

This is the sixth façade projection since 2002 at the Johnson Museum. The previous exhibitions were Janet Biggs and Robert Cmar’s Untitled (September 25, 2001: Floors 75 through 110), Haluk Akakçe’s White on White, Jennifer Steinkamp’s X-Ray Eyes, Asta Gröting’s Parking, and Maria Friberg’s blown out.

HERBERT F. JOHNSON MUSEUM OF ART
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4001
www.museum.cornell.edu