May 30 through August 26, 2001

Field 1 is a large-screen video projection by Michal Rovner, a New York artist who was born in Israel. In this mesmerizing work, which debuted at the 2000 Whitney Biennial, ghost-like and shadowy figures forge a path within an abstractly defined landscape. Faceless people, whose identities transcend time and nationality, march in formation or wander in groups and in isolation. At points along the journey, swarms of mosquitoes suddenly overwhelm the field and slowly dissolve. Surrounded by sounds that range from meditative chanting to the desert wind to buzzing helicopters, the viewer is drawn into the pathos of exile.

Filmed in both the Negev desert and during a snowstorm in New York, Field 1 is one of Rovner's monumental, atmospheric videos that metaphorically and literally blur the boundaries between people and environment. Her most recent epic video, Overhang, which Field 1 complements, was projected life-size through seventeen windows of the Chase Manhattan Bank on Park Avenue in New York City and from nine windows of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Rovner has also created site-specific installations along the border between Israel and Lebanon. In these works, she photographs and digitally prints her amorphous figures on murals and large banners to suggest both loss and survival in a war zone. The artist began her career as a photographer and the interactions between video and photography are evident in her work. Combining an array of different materials and experimenting with new media and techniques, Rovner challenges traditional boundaries of artmaking. The artist's works are in the collections of many museums around the country, including: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. A mid-career survey of her work is scheduled next year at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

This project received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Barbara Matilsky
Curator of Exhibitions