The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

June 24 to July 15: Marina Zurkow

The Thirsty Bird, 2012
Video, black and white, silent, media player, screen or projector
Dimensions variable, horizontal orientation
5 min 12 sec, loop
Edition of 5, 2 AP
Animation assistance Lindsay Nordell
Courtesy of the artist and bitforms, New York

The movement of an oil pump jack (known colloquially as a “thirsty bird”), and a public water fountain are synchronized in a transitory dance. As the pump pulls oil upward, the water fountain spurts water. An array of archetypal individuals—cowboys and Indians, a father and his son, a county sheriff, a cow, a soldier, a girl with her dog—emerge in endless succession to drink from the fountain. The graphic treatment is based on Gerd Arntz’s (1900-1988) ISOTYPE (International System Of Typographic Picture Education) figures, developed with Viennese social scientist and philosopher Otto Neurath (1882-1945) as a means for displaying visual statistics.

Marina Zurkow was born in 1962 in New York City, where she lives and works.

July 16 to August 5: Jillian Mayer

You’ll Be Okay, 2013
Video, color, sound; 4:00 minutes loop

Make-Up Tutorial HOW TO HIDE FROM CAMERAS, 2013
Video, color, sound; 3:36 minutes

Promo Model for Hire, 2012
Video, color, sound; 2:00 minutes

We As Me, 2011
Video, color, sound; 1:33 minutes

All work courtesy of the artist and David Castillo Gallery, Miami

Jillian Mayer is an artist and filmmaker. Her artistic practice spans video, performance, installation, and sculpture, and is steeped in the coded lexicon of our hyperkinetic post-Internet era. Informed by sitcoms, infomercials, reality TV, YouTube, touchscreens, and augmented and virtual communities, Mayer’s videos, in which she almost always “stars,” use humor and parody to probe the tenuous interconnectedness of tangible and simulated realms.

Jillian Mayer was born in 1986 in Miami, Florida, where she lives and works.

August 6 to 26: Bigert & Bergström

Moments of Silence, 2014
Digital cinema package; 14 minutes
Courtesy of the artists

At certain times, dates, and places, pedestrians halt, traffic stops and silence ensues. For just a moment, generally counted in minutes, the world is a frozen arrow pointing at the thought of something important, so important that it should never be forgotten. As a meditative memento on the importance of a collective memory, the Swedish artists Bigert & Bergström have compiled a series of these moments into a film. Together these sampled minutes of silence reflect one of few activities that bring people together regardless of religion, race, or cultural background. The archival material outlines a mute history of tragedy and grief, often staged against a backdrop of natural disasters and violent conflict. But the footage is also a reminder of the stoic nature of humans, never accepting the horrors of terror attacks, war, or rogue killers.

Mats Bigert was born in 1965 in Stockholm, Sweden. Lars Bergström was born in 1962 in Stockholm, Sweden. Bigert & Berström live and work in Stockholm, Sweden.

August 27 to September 16: Rhys Coren

SNAP!, 2017
Single channel animated video with sound; 5:31 minutes

smile!, 2018
Single channel video, looped animation

Love Motion, 2018
Single channel animated video with sound; 5:40 minutes

All work courtesy of the artist and Seventeen, London

Rhys Coren’s practice spans animation, writing, performance, and painted marquetry. His short, looping, animated works are notable for a contagious use
of color and a rhythmic, pulsating composition. Coren’s methodology in the studio is directly informed by his deep interest in music, specifically the infective and improvised seamless tracks of jazz and electronica.

Rhys Coren was born in 1983 in Plymouth, United Kingdom; he lives and works in London, United Kingdom.