A still image from ‘Belle Captive II,’ 2013, 16mm film transfer and video loop. | Image courtesy Victoria Fu
Tonight (Jan. 9) the UC Irvine University Art Gallery opens a solo exhibition by artist Victoria Fu (Art MFA 05), one of the many CalArts alumni who were recently tapped to show in the 2014 Whitney Biennial at Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (March 7-May 28).
The UC Riverside show, Cult of Splendor, runs until Feb. 8, with tonight’s opening reception held from 6-9 pm.
Curated by Kellie Lanham, the exhibition is inspired by German writer Siegfried Kraucer’s 1926 essay Cult of Distraction. More from the UC Irvine University Art Gallery site:
[In the essay,] Kraucer describes the opulent movie palaces of the 1920s as possessing a “surface splendor,” one enticing viewers to forget the hardships of living within an industrial society. The intoxicating lure of the screen and its ability to take us out of our harsh reality is as relevant now as it was some 100 years ago. As movie palaces have given way to other spectacular screens – television, smart phones, laptops, and tablets – we find that magnificent distractions still have an enduring following: this is the site of Victoria Fu’s solo exhibition Cult of Splendor. In a constellation of Fu’s 16mm films and digital video installations we encounter such diverse topics as appropriation and the unclear ethics of Internet use, the history of cinema and spectatorship, globalization, and the want or even need for distraction in a capitalist society. Through Fu’s work we can begin to critique the cult of splendor.
The exhibition catalog is available for view or download here, and features texts from Lanham and artist Max Maslansky.
Fu is already set to have a busy year, with her work appearing at Document in Chicago (from Jan. 31-March 8) and at the UCR/California Museum of Photography in Riverside (Feb. 1-June 21).