Keith Sonnier, still from Color Wipe, 1973, color videotape, 30 minutes with sound. Peformed by Tina Girouard.
Keith Sonnier, Depose, Cat Doucet Series, 1996, mixed media with argon and electric light, 56 x 30 x 18 inches. All images courtesy the artist and Leo Castelli Gallery.
Calligraphy drawn from the age of satellites beaming and technology blaring, Keith Sonnier’s sculptures, urban neon and country trash, fuse the detritus of popular western culture with the suggestiveness of eastern imagery. Best known for his neon sculptures, Sonnier also pioneered early video art and installation which captured the razzmatazz of our new found infatuation for digital dreaming. Vertical roll, black, neon and strobe light; dancers, musicians, computer language, television broadcast and satellite transmission form the visual and aural vernacular of his tapes and films, recently gathered under the title, Channel Mix.
Keith Sonnier, Atchafalalaya, Cat Doucet Series, 1996, neon, argon lighting, steel, 80 x 48 x 9 inches.
Keith Sonnier, Animation II, 1974, ¾ inch color videotape, 25 minutes with sound.
Like his older compatriot Mark Leckey, Atkins deftly utilizes syncopated montages of sounds and filmic images to create disturbing and disorienting virtual realities.
With contributions from Naeem Mohaiemen, Martha Rosler, Devin Kenny, Swoon, and more.
“A good part of our work is about giving materiality to things that aren’t visible.”
Originally published in
Featuring interviews with Tim Roth, Amy Hempel, Emmylou Harris, Matthew Ritchie, Wallace Shawn, Christian Wolff, Gilles Peress, Kendall Thomas, and George Walker.
We need our own space to think and digest what we see. And we also have to trust the viewer and trust the power of the object. And the power is in simple things. I like the kind of clarity that that brings to thought. It keeps thought from being opaque.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
