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Listen "Description of interior River of Images, 2023"
Episode Synopsis
Access a slow-looking exercise related to this work.
Transcript
Marilee Talkington: In "River of Images," made by Sarah Sze in 2023, rectangular video vignettes are projected on the interior and exterior walls of the Guggenheim Museum. The exterior projections move in a single line about 8 feet high along the street level of the building. The interior projections move around the circular top level of the rotunda, which sits about 70 feet high from the museum’s floor below.
Each projection is a looping video of a different scene, in an oblong rectangular frame. They float along at variable speeds, which causes them to sometimes overlap as they move. The artist has compared the projections to a car on a racetrack, seeming to shrink or enlarge, and stretch or compress as their distance changes from the viewer.
As the interior projections circle the walls of the rotunda’s top level, they merge with other the works of art such as paintings, large installations, and sculptures, on display by Sze in that space. They are only visible as isolated images when they periodically pass along blank walls.
The projected videos include:
A peregrine falcon, which is small and brown, soaring over a patch of blue sky.
A computer rendering of a tall brick building crumbling down; a yellow cloud of smoke billowing upward from its foundation.
A hand fanning out a deck of cards with the four of hearts on the top of the deck.
A hand dragging a black marker across a white page, leaving a shaky black line trailing after.
A small ball of orange fire in a silver pot placed on gravel.
Ice frozen in a cylinder shape.
A close-up of a lit match.
A shadowy hand dipping the tip of its index finger into a bowl of bright blue liquid, causing the water to ripple.
A small figure standing at a great distance in front of two pyramids on a flat desert landscape.
A close-up of a woven texture the color of a luminescent rainbow.
An enormous golden sun sitting at the horizon line in a blood-orange sky.
A vignette of a city street nestled between rows of buildings that lead to a golden sunset on the horizon line.
Water droplets splashing as two black cylinder-shaped dowels break the surface of a cup of water.
And finally, a close-up of a volcano erupting, hot lava splattering in every direction.
Transcript
Marilee Talkington: In "River of Images," made by Sarah Sze in 2023, rectangular video vignettes are projected on the interior and exterior walls of the Guggenheim Museum. The exterior projections move in a single line about 8 feet high along the street level of the building. The interior projections move around the circular top level of the rotunda, which sits about 70 feet high from the museum’s floor below.
Each projection is a looping video of a different scene, in an oblong rectangular frame. They float along at variable speeds, which causes them to sometimes overlap as they move. The artist has compared the projections to a car on a racetrack, seeming to shrink or enlarge, and stretch or compress as their distance changes from the viewer.
As the interior projections circle the walls of the rotunda’s top level, they merge with other the works of art such as paintings, large installations, and sculptures, on display by Sze in that space. They are only visible as isolated images when they periodically pass along blank walls.
The projected videos include:
A peregrine falcon, which is small and brown, soaring over a patch of blue sky.
A computer rendering of a tall brick building crumbling down; a yellow cloud of smoke billowing upward from its foundation.
A hand fanning out a deck of cards with the four of hearts on the top of the deck.
A hand dragging a black marker across a white page, leaving a shaky black line trailing after.
A small ball of orange fire in a silver pot placed on gravel.
Ice frozen in a cylinder shape.
A close-up of a lit match.
A shadowy hand dipping the tip of its index finger into a bowl of bright blue liquid, causing the water to ripple.
A small figure standing at a great distance in front of two pyramids on a flat desert landscape.
A close-up of a woven texture the color of a luminescent rainbow.
An enormous golden sun sitting at the horizon line in a blood-orange sky.
A vignette of a city street nestled between rows of buildings that lead to a golden sunset on the horizon line.
Water droplets splashing as two black cylinder-shaped dowels break the surface of a cup of water.
And finally, a close-up of a volcano erupting, hot lava splattering in every direction.
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