Lecture

A new initiative co-organized with the School of Art, Media, and Technology and the Fine Arts Program Parsons, this lecture series captures the increasingly trans-disciplinary nature of scientific, academic, artistic, and cultural practices and, in particular, focuses on the complex cross-disciplinary settings for art’s production in contemporary life.

In this lecture, artist Josiah McElheny introduces two works, both titled Island Universe and both connected to an ongoing collaboration with astrophysicist David Weinberg (Ohio State University). One is a large-scale sculptural installation, and the other is a film shot on location at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The visual depiction of time is at the core of McElheny’s talk, but he also describes how he sees the history of science echoing the history of politics – in ways both sublime and absurd.

Island Universe, the film, had its U.S. premiere at the Museum of Modern Art on November 8, 2010. An excerpt will be screened during this lecture.

Josiah McElheny is a New York-based sculptor, performance artist, and filmmaker best known for his use of glass with other materials. He has written for such publications as Artforum and Cabinet, and is a contributing editor to Bomb and a 2006 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.
He has had recent one-person museum exhibitions at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. His work is in the permanent collections of international institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago di Compostela; and Tate Modern, London. His artist books include The Light Club: On Paul Scheerbarts The Light Club of Batavia (University of Chicago Press, 2010), The Metal Party (Public Art Fund and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2002), and An Historical Anecdote About Fashion (Henry Art Gallery, 1999). Recently he has been a Senior Critic at Yale University School of Art.