ELAINE BUCKHOLTZ: INTRACTABLE

APRIL 13 - MAY 24, 2018

VERY presents Intractable by light artist Elaine Buckholtz. In her latest video installation, Buckholtz breaks down light to its essence, allowing the experience of looking to return to its fundamental nature: a sensory phenomenon. In Intractable, dual screens side by side emit a soft, slow blur of emerging geometries. The 35-minute video loop, projected onto two stills from the sequence, was created by spinning images of a post-impressionist paintings on a motor while vigorously shaking a video camera from above. Slowed-down to just shy of a halt, the video blooms into mesmerizing progressions of line and color. At times quivering, pulsating, and vibrating, the projection becomes a tantalizing dance, continuously dissolving into itself but never quite resolving. An astonishing feat of pure abstraction, the work becomes all the more compelling as it insistently disallows representation.

Buckholtz is currently a professor of Interrelated Media Art at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has a longstanding background in visual and lighting design for the stage, having worked with some of the most influential performance artists of our time including Terry Riley, Merce Cunningham, and Meredith Monk. Her recent work utilizes video and light in relation to sculptural forms, digital prints, and pre-existing sites in architecture and nature under the cover of darkness. A significant aspect of Buckholtz’s visual work involves direct experiences and immersive environments for the viewer to engage in– the materials of her work have included light, vision, and perception in relation to objects as large as cathedrals and as small as a pair of glasses.

Buckholtz received two consecutive MFA's from California College of the Arts and Stanford University from 2002 to 2006 with the support of The Jacob K. Javits Fellowship.  Her work was recently exhibited at Gallery 308 in San Francisco CA., The International House of Japan in Tokyo, Japan, and The Lumiere Festival in London, England. She most recently is the recipient of the Japan Friendship Commission Fellowship for 2017.