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Monument Valley
2 versions:
Installation, 1999-2001
Single channel video, 8 minutes, 2001
Most Westerns transform a genocidal
history into heroic fiction, using the myth of the frontier
as a justification. The Monument Valley project is a parody
of this kind of transformations and blurs the boundaries
between past and present, fictional history and contemporary
reality, and popular culture and fine art.
Monument Valley interrupts conventional
constructions of narrative, history as fiction, nature
as an open stage for expansionist fantasy, and expressions
of
control through objectification.
Monument Valley combines video footage from several sources that relate to the
famous landscape and tourist destination of the American Southwest. Monument
Valley, located in the Navajo Indian Reservation on the border between Arizona
and Utah, continues to fascinate tourists worldwide, drawing from a mystique
of the Hollywood cinematic "Western." The video juxtaposes contemporary
footage of tourists visiting the site, shot by Liselot van der Heijden, with
excerpts from the famous 1950's Western "The Searchers" and a television
documentary on the production of "The Searchers" produced around the
same time.
   view
an excerpt of this video
The installation
The installation is set in a separate room and the main video (12 minutes, in
a continuous loop) is projected as large as the wall, at the entrance. The image
is overwhelming for the viewer, larger than life. The viewer enters with only
a close-up view of the video, unable to oversee the whole image. To see the full
picture one has to enter the dark room. The video is projected onto the entering
viewer, who becomes a tourist, looking at the absurd scenery, an unwilling accomplice.
Inside the room is a small (rear)-projection screen (set in the wall) with a
loop of John Wayne pulling endless repeating acrobatic tricks with his gun. This
image is extremely small in comparison to the large screen. On the back wall
is a small lightbox with a quote of the Native American writer Sherman Alexie: "The
only thing more pathetic than an Indian on TV is an Indian watching an Indian
on TV." |
Installation view
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