Announcing PULSE Miami Beach 2015 PROJECTS & PLAY

PULSE Contemporary Art Fair is pleased to announce our full series of PROJECTS, a series of audience-engaging large-scale sculptures, installations and performances and PLAY, a dedicated showcase for video and new media that encourages discovery within the digital realm. PLAY is curated at PULSE Miami Beach by independent curator Stacy Engman. Discover PROJECTS throughout the fair.

PROJECTS

You are (on) an Island (2011-2013) is a thought-provoking neon installation which switches between two statements —one metaphorical and the other geographical—by Dallas-based artists Alicia Eggert and Mike Fleming, courtesy of Sienna Patti.  

Trees (2015) is a playful yet unsettling sculpture by multi-media artist Gordon Holden who is known for ongoing commentary on pop culture and consumerism, courtesy of Paul Loya Gallery. 

Everyone Is Somewhere (2015) is a fictitious “apartment building” sculpture that juxtaposes notions of community and isolation by Chris Jones courtesy of MARC STRAUS.

Over and Under (2013) is an object born of industry and hand through the combination of textile and metal scaffolding by Frances Trombly courtesy of Miami-based Emerson Dorsch. 

Corbu Bench, (2015) is a small scale architecture piece which was inspired by Le Corbusier’s tiled lounge at Villa Savoye in Paris by New York-based artist Jim Osman courtesy of Lesley Heller Workspace. 

OFFICIAL PLAY SELECTIONS
 

Bahar Behbahni
AJAX BOOT
Courtesy of Causey Contemporary, New York

Julius Hoffmann
Might of Young Engines
Courtesy of Kleindienst, Leipzig, Germany

Curated by Stacy Engman
 
Nino Mustica
Pittura Solida - Solid Paint
Courtesy of Scaramouche, New York, NY

 Rachel Rampleman
Burlesques/Showgirl Studies: Busby Berkeley 2.0
Courtesy of Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

These art videos share common and overlapping themes regarding notions of glamour, isolation, and reflection - driven by narratives of constructed environments and contexts which vacillate between notions of the real and imagined.Rachel Rampleman’s Burlesques/Showgirl Studies: Busby Berkeley 2.0, is a stunning kaleidoscopic abstraction of movement utilizing motifs of showgirls dancers, beckoning notions of old-time storied glamour, made contemporary and timeless at once. Bahar Behbahani’s AJAX BOOT personifies questions of identity, and emphasizes themes of desire. The artist herself is situated on a constructed turntable, surrounded by refracted mirrors - adorned in red boots, formal dress and a headpiece covered in sensuous fruits - various worlds and referential meanings converge. The virtual reality posited in Julius Hofmann’s Might of Young Engines recalls notions of first generation virtual existence gaming modes as seen in Second Life, while alluding to more sinister and violent themes portrayed in contemporary video games, while giving a nod to aesthetics of seduction inherent within advertising culture. Questions of multidimensional reality accelerate in Nino Mustica’s Pittura Solida (Solid Painting) – mutating identity and placement via the artists painting, which morphs into a three – dimensional object that ultimately finds placement in a utopian art museum – which springs up virtually surrounding the painting itself along with itsmany viewers. These works all embody and vacillate between utopias and dystopias of the contemporary condition echoing universal themes inherent within contemporary life and culture. – Stacy Engman