Adaptation: Video Installations by Ben-Ner, Herrera, Sullivan, and Sussman & The Rufus Corporation
Smart Museum of Art
University of Chicago
5550 S. Greenwood Ave.
Chicago IL 60637
January 31 - May 4, 2008
While adaptation is a common practice in popular culture—familiar to moviegoers and booklovers who debate endlessly whether the film version is superior to the novel—it is perhaps less well known as a practice in contemporary art.
This exhibition looks at the use of adaptation in the recent work of four leading artists: Guy Ben-Ner, Arturo Herrera, Catherine Sullivan, and Eve Sussman & The Rufus Corporation. Each of these artists has transformed source material to make their own adapted work of art, re-envisioning classic literature, film, ballet, e-mail, and painting for new video installations. For example, Ben-Ner condenses Herman Melville's Moby Dick into a brief silent video made entirely in the artist's kitchen, while Sussman's feature-length The Rape of the Sabine Women transforms an eighteenth-century painting into an extended contemporary narrative.
In six major video installations adapted from source material, Adaptation addresses questions of fidelity and creativity while generating new understanding of the use of adaptation as a practice in contemporary art.
The exhibition includes the United States museum premieres of The Rape of the Sabine Women and Les Noces, Herrera's first video installation.
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