Performa 13 · Event

Ed Atkins, Even Pricks , 2013. Courtesy of the artist, Cabinet Gallery, London and Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Berlin.

Ed Atkins Man of Steel

Thursday, November 21, 7:30 pm

Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave MAP
$15

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Ed Atkins is part of a generation of artists who have emerged in London in recent years, who have been able to identify and manipulate the emotions, experiences, poetics and thinking structures unique to contemporary media, such as digital film, surround-sound, computer generated imagery and the Internet. Hosted by Atkins, this evening will be a personal consideration of avatar performances in moving image works, particularly those that appear to dismiss any sense of truth or authentic identity beneath a performance, in favor of a thrall to pure surface, and artifices that speak, precisely, of nothing beneath. Recent works by Atkins, including Even Pricks (2013) made for the Lyon Biennale, and Warm, Warm Spring Mouths (2013) will be shown, alongside the artist’s selection of works by other filmmakers, all featuring surrogates, alter egos and characters – computer-generated, morphed, masked or stripped back – which are utilized to speak, act or exist in the stead of an artist or performer. Specifically – and particularly as they are most commonly understood today – Atkins casts avatars as misanthropic figures: characters who might, separated from their milieu, and liberatedfrom social mediumship and the economics of likability, be melancholic, embattled figures whose most evident correspondents are the anonymous, grotesque trolls of online commentary. Punctuating the evening will be newly produced videos by Atkins, featuring performances by an invited selection of performers, who via computer-generated, motion-captured avatars – will each sing an unaccompanied song, alone, from memory.

Man of Steel is a Performa Project curated by Mark Beasley. Presented with Anthology Film Archives.