Cool Hunting

The work of Berlin-based South African artist Robin Rhode really caught my eye at one of the Art Basel events in Miami last week. Art Positions features 22 shipping containers next to the beach, which galleries use to show their wares. Some opted to approximate their permanent spaces, while others were slowly filled with sand (Aaron Young's installation in the container of Harris Lieberman, above right), but Rhode's "Color Chart" stood out in the container from New York's Perry Rubenstein Gallery.

Seemingly shot from above with the subjects lying on their sides, it's a stop-motion animation featuring a man dressed entirely in white who slowly dispatches several enemies, one at a time, with bricks. It may sound like it was inspired by an old kung-fu arcade game, but the photography and the way it's animated has a powerful zen-like quality, similar to that from Rhode's "Stone Flag" (above left). Rhode's work was shown in Tokyo this year, and in May 2007, he'll have a solo show at Perry Rubenstein.

You can also see other animated works of his here.