Interview with Curator Phaedra Siebert
Ben Whitehouse talks about his painting and
the evolution of The Revolution Series
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio
March 15 - April 25
Revolution Still Lifes
ArtChicago
April 30 - May 3
Perimeter Gallery, Booth TBA
Grand Rapids Art Museum
June 4 - August 22
GRAM and Ox-Bow
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago September 10 - October 9
SUNDAY, SEP. 16, 2007
Ben Whitehouse’s show is about savoring our time-based experience of natural landscape and the world around us. So avoid rushing through his solo exhibit at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts.
Instead, sit back and relax even as the display’s title, “Revolution,” is mentioned, for it refers to the 24 hours it takes the earth to rotate completely on its axis.
Surely the most strikingly innovative feature of this distinguished show is the way Whitehouse combines traditional oil painting with video and produces remarkably unified results.
His paintings come in clusters. One set presents 31 small oils painted realistically in the open air of Lake Michigan’s watery horizon line, done at the same time on 31 consecutive days—no two images alike atmospherically.
A double-set of 48 small paintings represents patches of skylight over Central Park that he painted every hour of the day for 24 hours. These take the form of flat abstractions arranged as a color wheel on the wall.
That such imagery can deal with vast landscapes is further amplified in two digital videos presented in real time (24 hours of it) and displayed on 65-inch plasma screens.
Both videos are complete artworks in themselves, and for each, Whitehouse spent 24 hours on location. One by this London-born Chicago resident is a lake scene emphasizing the transitional experience of natural phenomena.
Especially awesome, however, is the other one, “Central Park” in Manhattan, a high-resolution overview looking uptown and beyond on a sunny day. Contributing much enhancement to this ever-changing picture is the accompanying sound track of distant, identifiable sounds such as cars’ blaring horns in traffic, whistles, and even the clickety-clack of carriage horses’ hooves as the afternoon noises intensify.
“Revolution” is a revelation, and well worth your close and unhurried attention any hour of the day.