Clay Floor (The New Adventures of Wonder Woman)
2012
Clay
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF WONDER WOMAN - Dara Birnbaum, Christopher J. Campbell, Michael Hanna, curated by Ben Crothers. 09- 28 January 2012.
The New Adventures of Wonder Woman sees work by internationally renowned artist Dara Birnbaum exhibited alongside that of Belfast-based artists Christopher J. Campbell and Michael Hanna. Both Campbell and Hanna were asked to create new works in response to Birnbaum’s seminal video work, Technology/ Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978-79), and now all three works are exhibited together in the same space, creating a dynamic new discourse.
The exhibition’s aims are multi-faceted: Not only does it bring a landmark work of contemporary video art to Northern Ireland, but it also gives local artists an exciting opportunity to critically and artistically respond to it, sharing an exhibition space with a major international artist for the first time in their careers.
Explosive bursts of fire open Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, an incendiary deconstruction of the ideology embedded in television form and pop cultural iconography. Appropriating imagery from the 1970s television series, Wonder Woman, Birnbaum isolates and repeats the moment of the ‘real’ woman's symbolic transformation into superhero. Entrapped in her magical metamorphosis by Birnbaum's stuttering edits, Wonder Woman spins dizzily like a music-box doll. Through radical manipulation of this female pop icon, Birnbaum subverts its meaning within the television text. Arresting the flow of images through fragmentation and repetition, Birnbaum condenses the comic-book narrative — Wonder Woman deflects bullets off her bracelets, ‘cuts’ her throat in a hall of mirrors — distilling its essence to allow the subtext to emerge.
In response to Birnbaum’s work, Michael Hanna has chosen to reference Wonder Woman’s origin story; a baby sculpted from clay and brought to life by the gods. He will cover the floor of the gallery space in a thick layer of wet clay. This serves to create a unique environment in which to screen Dara Birnbaum’s video work, in addition to referencing Wonder Woman’s very creation, from which her progression into a pop culture icon has evolved.
Christopher J. Campbell’s new sculptural project is as much a response to Michael Hanna’s work as it is to Birnbaum’s. Campbell will reference Wonder Woman’s physical transformation over her 70 year history, exploring the ways in which her image has evolved and been interpreted, from her appearance in comic books, cartoons, and live-action television shows to the recent phenomenon of cosplay.
Campbell will make a different sculpture of Wonder Woman each day of the exhibition, working within the gallery space. In response to Hanna’s work, Campbell’s sculptures will be formed from the clay floor, the smooth surface of which will be transformed over the course of the exhibition as the sculptural works increase in number.
Ben Crothers is a young curator based in Belfast. After completing his MA in Art History and Film Theory at the University of Essex, he undertook an internship at Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast in 2009. He was later appointed as the gallery's Sales Consultant and Exhibitions Assistant, positions which he kept until July 2011. He currently works at the third space gallery as a Gallery Assistant and continues to work on projects with Golden Thread Gallery.
Ben Crothers has been involved with international exhibitions in Poland and Taiwan, and has worked at both London Art Fair and SCOPE Art Show, New York. In 2011 he participated in the 'curator in residence' project at PS², where his proposal THE NEW ADVENTURES OF WONDER WOMAN was selected for realization.