Still from Monument, 2010 Two-Channel Video Total Running Time: 1 minute
Photo Courtesy of Nicelle Beauchene Gallery
Through Sunday, Jan. 16: A solo exhibit of short videos recommended by The New York Times, “A Shadow As Big As A Hat” is showing at the Nicelle Beauchene Gallery on the Lower East Side. Show ends Sunday.
Ehrenberg’s work is inspired by early German Expressionist films of the 1920s and 30s, the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop and Japanese folktales. His meandering and elaborate narratives encompass a visual style heavily influenced by the orchestrated compositions and dramatic lighting of F. W. Murnau’s Faust, and Fritz Lang’s M and Metropolis. He pays homage to the ‘cinemagician’ Georges Melies, who is credited with the development of stop trick, multiple exposure and time-lapse photography.
Addressing themes of transformation and metamorphosis, the exhibition’s central work, Seed, borrows from Nikolai Gogol’s The Nose with its portrayal of a man whose body begins to slowly shed its pieces. As his identity slips away, he seeks help from a shamanistic healer who is able to restore the man’s physical body, albeit with an unsettling new corporeality.
In the gallery’s Video Lounge downstairs, Ehrenberg has two earlier works on view: Moth and The Blue Hand. Inspired by The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop, Moth follows three moth-like figures drawn to differing light sources.
Read the New York Times Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/arts/design/07galleries-JONATHANEHRE_RVW.html
Gallery hours:
Wednesday – Sunday 11 – 6 pm
Nicelle Beauchene Gallery
21 Orchard St.
212.375.8043
www.nicellebeauchene.com
