Charles Atlas, "The Illusion of Democracy"
Luhring Augustine Bushwick, 25 Knickerbocker Avenue, Brooklyn
February 18–May 20
A pioneering experimental filmmaker and video artist, Atlas was given the freedom to use Luhring Augustine's newly opened space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, however he saw fit. He chose to exhibit three video projections on the walls; the largest, 143652, 2012, was created for the exhibition, and the two smaller pieces—Plato’s Alley, 2009, and Painting by Numbers, 2008—are appearing in new York for the first time. The sense of illusion in all three works is underscored by numeric transitions: digits melting into one another, shrinking into infinity, or trailing one behind the next in clouds of echoing vibrations. The works are legible, but any hope of decrypting the significance of the numbers is futile.
The pieces seem to offer a sharp contrast to Atlas’s early film works, which probe personae, sexuality, and the body. But they do reflect the deep influences on his career as an artist, film director, and renowned collaborator. When Atlas moved to New York in the early 1970s, he worked as an intern-turned-videographer for the dance legend Merce Cunningham. This might lead us to believe the stark, monochrome numbers are simply choreographed to perform for us at different levels of focus. Atlas chalks his beginnings in dance and video up to chance. Andy Warhol must have influenced him early on, but not as much as Cunningham’s close friend and collaborator John Cage, who was a frequent visitor to the latter’s studio. Much like the principles of the I Ching, championed by Cage as a tool for creating, and used often by Cunningham in his choreography, Atlas’s new exhibition feels more like a tribute to and meditation on chance operations and choreography—exploring the unveiled equations that are invisible in the movements and patterns of everyday life.
This review will appear in the May issue of Modern Painters magazine.
To see images from Charles Atlas's "The Illusion of Democracy" at Luhring Augustine, click on the slide show.