Museum PR Announcements News and Information

Whitney Museum of American Art opens T. J. Wilcox: In the Air

Whitney Museum of American Art presents T. J. Wilcox: In the Air an exhibition on view SEPT 19, 2013–FEB 9, 2014.

T. J. Wilcox (b. 1965), still from In the Air, 2013. Panoramic film installation: Super 8 film transferred to video and HD video, black-and-white and color, silent; 35 min., looped. Collection of the artist; courtesy Metro Pictures. Image courtesy the artist
T. J. Wilcox (b. 1965), still from In the Air, 2013. Panoramic film installation: Super 8 film transferred to video and HD video, black-and-white and color, silent; 35 min., looped. Collection of the artist; courtesy Metro Pictures. Image courtesy the artist

For T. J. Wilcox: In the Air, the New York-based artist has created a remarkable new panoramic film installation, which will fill up most of the second floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Here Wilcox revisits the “cinema in-the-round” panoramic presentations that appeared at the dawn of film history in the late 19th century, bringing the concept up to date with state-of-the-art technology to create an immersive cinematic environment.

Wilcox’s work is characterized by a fascination with personal narrative and the ways in which history is always under construction, woven from fact, myth, memory, associations, and the bombardment of information we all receive on a moment-to-moment basis. Shot from Wilcox’s studio with its 360-degree views of Manhattan from high above Union Square, In the Air tells New York-specific narratives related to the spectacular views seen through the artist’s windows: an architect’s vision of the Empire State Building as the landing site for trans-Atlantic zeppelins; Andy Warhol’s welcoming the pope-mobile with a flurry of silver Mylar balloons; the life in the spotlight of artist, starlet, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt; and the mesmerizing Manhattanhenge, the phenomenon that occurs when the sun sinks slowly at the Western edge of East-West city streets with perfect precision, creating a magical effect within the canyon-like walls of the city’s grid.

The exhibition also features related pieces selected by Wilcox from the Museum’s permanent collection, including works by Morgan Fisher, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Yoko Ono, as well as a film and video series devoted to ways artists have viewed the cityscape of New York.

T. J. Wilcox: In the Air is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator. http://whitney.org