23 Deaths — and Many Chinese Myths — on Nine Screens
Sunday, December 01, 2013
Play
00:00 / 00:00
-
Isaac Julien's "Ten Thousand Waves" at the Museum of Modern Art (Gisele Regatao)
A tragedy that killed 23 Chinese migrant workers in England nine years ago is the theme of a new massive art piece.
"Ten Thousand Waves" is a nine-screen moving image installation by London-based artist Isaac Julien at the Museum of Modern Art.
Julien mixed footage from the rescue of the drowning with images of contemporary Chinese culture and its ancient myths. He explained he wanted to offer a new take on Chinese workers, beyond cheap labor.
"We admire China for its economic productivity, but we don't really look at it in terms of a source for cultural exchange in the same way," he said.
Deborah Solomon is WNYC's art critic. In this interview, she said the piece is powerful, but also beautiful. "It's a political piece, but it also has a lot of lyrical poetry, for a piece about politics it's completely free of didactic-ism or preachiness."
Julien mixed footage from the rescue of the drowning with images of contemporary Chinese culture and its ancient myths. He explained he wanted to offer a new take on Chinese workers, beyond cheap labor.
"We admire China for its economic productivity, but we don't really look at it in terms of a source for cultural exchange in the same way," he said.
Deborah Solomon is WNYC's art critic. In this interview, she said the piece is powerful, but also beautiful. "It's a political piece, but it also has a lot of lyrical poetry, for a piece about politics it's completely free of didactic-ism or preachiness."
More in:
-
Gisele Regatao, Executive Producer, WNYC News
Gisele Regatao is the Executive Producer for WNYC News, where she oversees a team of producers and hosts, and the local content for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. She is also in charge of the cultural coverage coming out of the Newsroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered