ART CITIES:San Francisco-Isaac Julien
Isaac Julien is as acclaimed for his fluent, arresting films as his vibrant and inventive gallery installations. One of the objectives of his work is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting them to construct a powerfully visual narrative.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture Archive
Three recent video installations by Isaac Julien are on presentation in his solo exhibition “Playtime”. Each one explores the wide-ranging effects of how information, labor, and capital circulate in global, networked societies. Occupying three separate galleries on the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture campus, the exhibition presents the U.S. premiere of Julien’s seven-screen installation, “Playtime” (2014), “KAPITAL” (2013), and “Better Life (Ten Thousand Waves)” (2010), the cinematic cut of Julien’s monumental installation “Ten Thousand Waves”, filmed on location in mainland China. A post-2008 spin on Jacques Tati’s 1967 film of the same name, “Playtime” (2014 unfolds across three capital cities: London, Reykjavik and Dubai, that have been extensively reshaped by the recent volatilities in the global financial system. Playtime’s cosmopolitan spectacle, presented in a kaleidoscopic montage across seven large screens, interconnects the lives of its archetypical characters: hedge fund managers and art world players in London; a photographer in Reykjavik; and a Filipina houseworker in Dubai, each of whom is based on a real-life individual directly affected by the market collapse. Julien visualizes the potential of capital to both create social mobility and produce obstacles to it, foregrounding the way each character inhabits and traverses the sweeping high-tech cityscapes, contemporary architecture, and sublime natural landscapes of these worldly locales. “KAPITAL” (2013): As part of his preparatory research for “Playtime”, in 2012 Julien produced a public talk at the Hayward Gallery in London, in which the artist addressed the problem of representing the invisible flows and relations of capital. Deftly editing the rich and insightful conversation that follows with a fast-paced montage of telling moments from film and media history, Julien and his audience of invited scholars illuminate many of the driving forces and felt repercussions of 21st century capitalism. During the creation process Julien described, “As I cannot film the thing itself, capital, I hope to film its shadow: its effects, its movements and the social relations it creates”. A nighttime coast guard emergency call and rescue helicopter footage from the 2004 Morecambe Bay tragedy, in which 23 Chinese cockle pickers perished in the rising tide off the Northwest coast of England, sets the scene for Isaac Julien’s “Better Life (Ten Thousand Waves)” (2010), a poetic meditation on what drives people to search for a “better life”. Over four years, Julien researched contemporary and historic Chinese culture and collaborated with many of China’s leading creative talents. Filmed in both contemporary and historic Shanghai, and in the breathtaking subtropical mountains of Guangxi province, the visually luscious video interweaves contemporary struggles of daily life with ancient mythology and historical artistic forms.
Info: Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, Gallery 308, 2 Marina Blvd., San Francisco, Duration: 1/12/17-11/2/18, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 12:00-20:00, Sun 11:00-17:00, https://fortmason.org
