The Cinema EffectIllusion, Reality, and the Moving Image
Published by GILES in association with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Available in North America and Canada exclusively from Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.
Publish Date — February 2008 (UK and USA)
Dimensions — 176 pages, 240mm x 280mm (11 x 9 ½ in.), landscape
Illustrations — 150 colour illustrations
Hardback price — UK£27.50/US$65.00
ISBN — 1-904832-50-4
ISBN — 978-1-904832-50-8
Book Details (pdf) — Cinema_Effect_AI.pdf
Sales Points
Publication accompanies a two-part exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Part 1: Dreams opens in February 2008; Part 2: Realisms opens in June 2008
Features the work of Matthew Buckingham, Candice Breitz, Paul Chan, Phil Collins, Bruce Conner, Tacita Dean, Stan Douglas, Kota Ezawa, Omer Fast, Christoph Girardet, Rodney Graham, Gary Hill, Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, Pierre Huyghe, Runa Islam, Isaac Julien, Steve McQueen, Kelly Richardson and Andy Warhol, among others
Features an illustrated chronology of the moving image by internationally renowned video artist Tony Oursler
About the Book
The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image offers the first in-depth exploration of the influence of cinema on contemporary artists using moving-image technology, and explores the way in which this medium has blurred cultural distinctions between reality and illusion. Cinema was the unrivalled art form of the twentieth century; in the art world the use of film and video and the appropriation of cinematic language and devices for works in a range of media have been growing since the early 1960s. In the realm of popular culture, the influence of this technology and its vocabulary (and of subsequent incarnations like television and the internet) has grown to the point where the boundaries between “real life” and make-believe are at the least blurred and at most indecipherable.
This volume opens with an overview by Kerry Brougher of the cultural, social and psychological issues raised by the project, before dividing into two parts which reflect the opposing poles at the core of cinema and its role in art and contemporary culture. Part I, Dreams, opens with a discussion by Kelly Gordon of how and why moving-image work has shifted from the margins to the center of art production, and considers the analogous relationship between cinema technology and the psychology of dreams and the ways in which artists compel or challenge the suspension of disbelief, encouraging viewers’ awareness of their participation in this process. Part II, Realisms, shifts the focus to the larger societal impact of cinema’s pervasiveness and looks at the work of emerging artists. In Man and the Movie Camera Kristen Hileman explores the complex issue of authenticity in art, film, and culture, whilst Anne Ellegood, in Character Driven: Subjectivity and the Cinematic, examines how the interplay between reality and fiction informs artists’ explorations into subjectivity, individuality and character. At the heart of Realisms is the irony that, while over the course of the 20th century moving-picture media have become dominant modes for documentary and distribution of factual imagery, and it has become easier and easier to capture real life in real time, the moving image is also understood to be a powerful vehicle of illusion and distraction. The difference between fact and fiction has become increasingly complicated and difficult to determine.
