Monday, June 29, 2009

Marcus Coates: "Animal Instincts" NOMA (New Orleans Museum of Art), USA



Marcus Coates: Animal Instincts, June 10 to August 23

Presented in NOMA’s new permanent video art space, Marcus Coates: Animal Instincts

is comprised of five video pieces featuring a range of work from the past 10 years.

Ornithologist, naturalist, artist, and shaman, Coates creates videos that examine

humankind’s complicated relationship to other living species. Assuming the role of a

shaman in his later pieces, Coates journeys to the “lower world” of animal spirits,

updating the historical role of a shaman as a community problem-solver. In his own

words, “you can’t escape your humanness, but the point of my work has been to explore

the degrees to which you can test that boundary and entertain the possibility of becoming

something else.” Organized by Miranda Lash, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.


image:

Marcus Coates

The Plover's Wing (The Palestinian/Israeli Crisis), The Mayor of Holon, Interpreter and Marcus Coates

2008
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK