Chrissie Iles in Conversation with Lucy Skaer

Skaer’s practice explores the relationship between viewer and image, altering normal processes of interpretation to create ruptures between what is seen and what is understood. Her new work comprises 16mm films depicting important cultural artifacts from different periods of time. Skaer physically alters the film prints to create voids and effects that intervene on both the timeline and the picture. Accompanying the films are sculptures that correspond both to the qualities of the original artifacts and her interruptions in the film.

Gilda Williams, Editor for Contemporary Art at Phaidon Press, London and correspondent for Artforum, says about Skaer: “everything is in a perpetual state of instability and in- betweeness”. Lucy uses a remarkable intellect and extraordinary skills to create rules in order to break their inner logic, challenging the viewer to question traditional ways of perception.

This is Skaer’s first solo project in New York. The work was developed during Skaer’s recently concluded year as an international fellow at Location One.

Lucy Skaer is a visual artist working in sculpture, painting, film, video and installation. Her many international exhibitions include the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and the 5th Berlin Biennale in 2008. She is currently showing at Forum 65 at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, K21 in Dusseldorf and Elle at the Centre Georges Pompidou. She works collaboratively with the artist group Henry VIII’s Wives and with Rosalind Nashashibi as Nashashibi/Skaer. Born in Cambridge in 1975, she holds a BA Hons Fine Arts from Glasgow School of Art

Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator Whitney Museum of American Art
Her specializations include film, Minimalist and process-based art of the sixties and seventies, and film and video installation. She is part of the curatorial team formulating the artistic policy of the Whitney Museum. Iles co-curated the recent 2004 Whitney Biennial, and curated the survey exhibition 'Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1964 - 1977’, a major exhibition of historical film, video and slide installations from the sixties and seventies, awarded a prize for the best exhibition in New York City in 2002 from the International Association of Art Critics.

We are grateful to the International Committee of Location One and The New York State Council on the Arts, and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for making this exhibition and the artist’s residency possible. Thanks to media sponsor OneArtWorld.com. Lucy Skaer is represented by doggerfisher, Edinburgh and Murray Guy, New York.

ABOUT LOCATION ONE

Based in the Soho arts district of New York, Location One is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to fostering new forms of creative expression and cultural exchange through exhibitions, residencies, performances, public lectures and workshops. Traditionally focused on technological experimentation and new media, Location One's residencies and programs have favored social and political discourse and dialogue, and acted as a catalyst for collaborations. With a unique environment providing individualized training, support, and guidance to each artist, as well as exposure for their creations and collaborations, Location One continues to nurture the spirit of experimentation that it considers the cornerstone of its mission.