Pipilotti Rist: Grabstein für RW
May 1—October 2, 2005Known internationally for her innovation within the medium of video art, Rist's videos posses a visual language all their own, filled with saturated colors, grainy or distorted images, and wide, sweeping motions through landscape and space. For The Aldrich, Rist installed Grabstein für RW, a gray tombstone strewn with maple leaves. At the center of the tombstone, a round video screen seen through a half-lens depicted the artist herself, lying in the grass, with her red tongue thrust out. Sexually charged and ethereal, Rist's performance confronts the boundaries of two distinct states of being, the ghostly with the flesh.
About the Artist
Born in Switzerland in 1962, Pipilotti Rist lives and works in Zurich and Los Angeles. She studied graphic design and photography at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, then video at the School for Design in Basel, and was the recipient of the Premio 2000 Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1997. She has mounted solo exhibitions at MUSAC, Centro Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon in Valladolid, Spain; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Centre of Contemporary Art in Warsaw; and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.Top of page: Pipilotti Rist, Grabstein für RW (Tombstone for RW), 2004, Video installation consisting of LCD Monitor built, serpentine stone, half glass ball, DVD player, artificial maple leaves, Video in DVD format, silent, 11 minutes, Installation dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York
