Cool Hunting

Adad Hannah: Living Stills by Mike Giles

adadtwins1.jpg

Born in New York in 1971, artist Adad Hannah spent his formative years in London and Vancouver before settling in Montreal, where he currently lives and works. He has exhibited in Seoul, Madrid, Poland, Amsterdam, Cardiff and Basel to mention but a few. The past six years of his career have been focused on "tableaux vivants" or "living stills," a process involves posing models and then asking them to stand completely still while they are recorded on video for 5-10 minutes. The result is both captivating and mesmerizing as the model’s breathing or blinking illuminates the space between photography and video. If you want to read an essay by artist and writer Steve Reinke about Adad’s work click here.

In late 2006 the Vancouver Art Gallery Asked Adad to stage a live “tableaux vivant” as part of a curated performance art series called Fuse. Adad wanted to create a performance piece that did not point to himself as the artist, standing behind the camera and capturing the performance. In “Internal Logic: Camping” five sets of identical twins perform in a mirror-image tableaux vivant; A family of four camps, while twin artists record them on matching video cameras. Looking at the piece it appears as if a mirror bisects the room, but it's a simulacra; there is no original and in this case no copy either. The piece was performed twice on 23 February 2007, with the models posing as still as possible for just over 10 minutes on each occasion. Adad was nice enough to share this hidden link from his site with the readers of CH for viewing photographs of the live performance. For videos of his captivating work you can visit his site.

adadtwins3.jpg adadtwins2.jpg

Tools
Print
Email
Save / Bookmark
fShare Share
Permanent link
Sphere It
This entry posted on 07 August 2007 at 2:00 AM
Related Entries
Mister Lonely
Nieves, a Swiss-based indie publisher, recently released "Mister Lonely," the third script from film director, producer, screenwriter and author, Harmony Korine. Released 10 years after the widely acclaimed Gummo (1997), his third feature film, "Mister Lonely," examines what happens when a Michael Jackson impersonator (played by Diego Luna) meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton). Released in conjunction with the movie's release in the...
Ryan McGinley: I Know Where the Summer Goes
Since bursting onto the scene eight years ago as one of the hottest young photographers in town, Ryan McGinley continues to produce enduring images that focus on the energy and enthusiasm of youth. In his latest show entitled "I Know Where the Summer Goes" (a title taken from an early B-side by Belle and Sebastian), McGinley continues to move from his original casual snapshot-style...
Mika Rottenberg
For our final video taking a closer look at this year's Whitney Biennial, we travel to the Harlem studio of video artist Mika Rottenberg. Known for videos depicting women engaging in elaborate systems of production that often harvest their own body, Mika shows us the set of her latest piece (and Biennial installation), "Cheese" and tells us the backstory of making the video. We...
Sarah Lüdemann
Sarah Lüdemann is a German artist living and working in Cambridge, England. Of her work she says: "the connection point between all my pieces of work is the concept of identity. Initially I started exploring my own 'self' through traditional self portraits. But soon I started investigating the notion of the self-portrait in wider terms to find out where it starts and where it ends...
Recent Cool Hunting Videosview all Cool Hunting Videos
Advertisement
Advertisement
Recent Entries

The Pharos Project


Hank and Matlok


Neon Shoes


Radio Village Nomade


Ghostly Swim: Interview with Sam Valenti


Creative Index


Interview with Maarten Baas


A Paper Tiger


Von Totebags and T-Shirts