Michael Joo: Bodhi Obfuscatus (Allegiance), a multi-media installation
Presented by The Project Room for New Media at Chelsea Art Museum, in collaboration with More Art
On View at Chelsea Art Museum January 10 – February 7, 2009
Opening reception January 10, 2009 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Michael Joo’s work is represented by a multi-media installation with video projection, mirrors and sound. For Bodhi Obfuscatus (Allegiance), a video helmet, devised by the artist as the equivalent of 48 live surveillance cameras, examines every detail of a group of New York teenagers’ faces as they tell stories about their lives and attempt to recite the “Pledge of Allegiance.” In the video installation, the close-up portraits, at once representational and abstract, are presented as a dense matrix of recorded projection and reflected video imagery.
Joo’s video helmet is part of an ongoing project, which has been used to record sculptures in the examination of the relationship of science, technology and religion within institutional spaces. In this new work, the static icon has been replaced by living beings, themselves icons of adolescence, for a meditation on the uneasy balance between uncertainty and conviction that signals change.
This exhibition is a collaborative project between The Project Room for New Media at Chelsea Art Museum and More Art. The Project Room for New Media, founded and directed by Nina Colosi, is a collaborative program that brings together international artists, curators, cultural, educational and corporate organizations. The Project Room is an incubator of new ideas showcasing groundbreaking concepts in all art mediums, and the intersection of the arts through technology. More Art was founded by Micaela Martegani, who is dedicated to making art more accessible to the general public. She believes that art has great connective potential because it offers new ways of communicating that are direct, yet non-threatening.
In addition, More Art and Chelsea Art Museum are collaborating with Clinton Middle School to bring students in for educational workshops centered around the exhibition.
Chelsea Art Museum
www.chelseaartmuseum.org