Isaac Julien's Video Trilogy Debuts @ MAM

Expeditions Trilogy Begins with Exposure to True North

Mar. 27, 2012

4:42 a.m.

The Milwaukee Art Museum presents another grand first for the city's contemporary art fans. London based, internationally acclaimed artist Isaac Julien arrived this past weekend for the March 24 opening of the artist's expedition trilogy exhibition titled “Currents 34: Isaac Julien.”  Housed in a room for the contemporary art gallery, three huge screens accompanied by surround sound panels placed in front and behind the viewer mesmerize the eyes and ears.  In Julien's first video True North (2004), snow and water contrast stark black and white to expose how an African American man named Matthew Henson was excluded from the fame achieved by Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary in reaching the North Pole. While the average person will recognize Peary's name, Henson's name elicits only the bare one-word question: “Who?”<o:p /> To dramatically portray this racial discrepancy, Julien's video artistically replicates an African American woman, actor Vanessa Myrie, through Peary's and Henson's expedition to the North Pole that travels over frozen land. Stepping over abysses and crevices in the snow-crusted ground that reach well over a mile down, if Myrie stumbles, she stumbles to her death, similar to Henson and Peary. In the last decade, Henson has finally been recognized as Peary\'s associate and cofounder, who wrote his own book A Negro Explorer of the North Pole, which noted this controversial choice for Peary's companion at the turn of the 20th century. At the museum installation while fine tuning the sound, Julien chats freely about the process to making his art while his video plays on the triple screens in a continuous loop, the haunting sound track filled with original chants, compositions and music. Fleeting images of Inuit culture, active in the North Pole long before Henson or Peary, the woman dressed in floating white dresses like an angel or a long, furry coat similar to the explorer, and the Ice Hotel move across the synchronized screens, each displaying separate images. Filmed on location in Iceland and Northern Sweden at the actual Ice Hotel, a chapel suddenly comes into view where guests can worship in the frosty pews. The video represents an expensive and treacherous 10-day shoot before the technical editing. Inspired by author Lisa Blume's book Gender on Ice and its chapter on Henson, Julien's video plays with masculinity and femininity by replacing male explorers with a female, race when an African American explorer stands in for a white man, and the indigenous Inuit culture, which was invaded because of the 1909 expedition. Monumental ice chunks standing on the Atlantic shoreline offer another reflection of the slave trade that traveled over this ocean on their way to Western continents while inferring the controversy attached to this geographical area through global warming. Julien persuasively suggests True North reflects “The present day history and memory together with an evocation of the sublime.” The art museum places benches around this gallery to allow time to meditate on Julien's hypnotic videos, the three on exhibit in succession throughout the year, while True North continues through May 9. The second, Fantome Afrique (2005) opens May 10 through June 17. The last video, Western Union: Small Boats (2007) will be available June 28 through February 10, 2013. This last piece was purchased by the museum for the permanent collection and provided an opportunity to exhibit all three Julien videos for the first time in one space. Chief Museum Curator Brady Roberts explains Julien's videos were first noticed in Miami, 2005. He described the work as “visually stunning, aesthetically pleasing and conceptually layered for multiple viewings.” True North exemplifies Roberts' point. Standing in the gallery the viewer tingles with the depth of the cold displayed in the video and lulled into a strange peace by the sights and sounds while the warmth in the human faces and figures contrast the power of natural forces. Roberts continued, “Julien's visual images make you want to research the material and delve into all the context and meaning.” Julien's other two videos deal with expeditions because he believes everyone is on their own exploration in life. The second film deals with Africans coming to Europe against beautiful Italian architecture and a cinematic backdrop. In the film purchased by the museum, Eastern Europeans sail to Africa in a reversal of the slave trade movement. Myrie, the African American and feminine protagonist references multiple perspectives and links all three videos with appearances in each one. Julien describes these expeditions by “working the poetic aspects to these journeys instead of the political, through the artistic and philosophical senses." For the opening of Julien's third video, “Western Union: Small Boats,” the MAM published a catalogue available on June 28 to document this extraordinary exhibition for Milwaukee and the Midwest. An exclusive opportunity worth revisiting over multiple museum visits. Brady concludes about this unique experience, “How exciting to watch the trilogy unfold. What they say individually is powerful, but what they say together is multiplied ten fold.” The Milwaukee Art Museum presents “Currents 34: Isaac Julien” and his Expeditions Trilogy through February 10, 2013. Each video runs for several months and begins with True North, currently on view. For more information visit <a href=\"http://www.mam.org\">www.mam.org</a>. <o:p /> <o:p> </o:p>

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