Dara Friedman Exhibition
Gavin Brown's Enterprise
This event has ended.
In PLAY, (Part 1&2), 2013, 15 couples—some real-life couples, others paired by the artist, all of them actors—develop and play out scenes of intimacy. The poetic, intense, and humorous situations grow intuitively from a process of improvisational theater games created for the purpose.
With this new work, Friedman engages with actors and their ability to receive and transmit projected desires, while at the same time laying bare theatrical and cinematic devices with Brechtian pleasure. Created during Friedman’s residency at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, PLAY was filmed at the museum’s Billy Wilder Theater, in a hippie shack in Topanga Canyon, and on the streets of Los Angeles.
PLAY marks an important climax in Friedman’s recent work, completing a trilogy of works with Musical (2007-8) and Dancer (2011). In Musical, singers catch us unaware in the street of New York, giving voice to their thoughts, while the city of Miami sets the stage for Dancer. Together the films show us a rhythm of life—showmanship and humility, aggression and tenderness, poise and wildness, all in equal measure.
Born in 1968 in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, Dara Friedman now lives and works in Miami. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York (2011, 2007, 2002); The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2013); Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland (2013); The Kitchen, New York (2005); Kunstmuseum, Thun, Switzerland (2002); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2002). The trilogy of works will be presented at MOCAD, Detroit in May 2014.
Friedman attended University of Miami, School of Motion Pictures (MFA); The Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London; Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; and Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York.
PLAY was created during a residency at the Hammer Museum. The Hammer Museum’s Artist Residency Program was initiated with funding from the Nimoy Foundation and is supported through a generous grant from The James Irvine Foundation.
Media
Schedule
from January 11, 2014 to February 22, 2014
Opening Reception on 2014-01-11 from 18:00 to 20:00