Essay by Lynne Cooke
Exhibition Images
Press Release
Checklist of Works
Selected Bibliography
Funding

This year-long project in three consecutive parts was devoted to the work of the Irish artist James Coleman. This was the first major museum presentation in the U.S. of Coleman's work. Born in Dublin in 1941, Coleman has been making multimedia works for over twenty years. Although he has used film and video as well as live-theater production, the medium which Coleman has made particularly his own is the unusual one of "slide-tape" multiple slide projection with synchronized audio tape. Coleman created a new work for Dia titled I N I T I A L S, which was shown throughout the duration of the exhibition; in addition, six other works ranging from 1972-92 were on view in three different installations of approximately 3 months each, providing a sense of the breadth of his work in this medium. Though widely shown in the most important contemporary art museums in Europe, the range of Coleman's work has never been made available to American audiences. This exhibition toured to the Kunstmuseum Lucerne, April 9-June 18, 1995.


Checklist of Works

A three-part series: April 14, 1994-March 12, 1995

Part I: April 14-June 19, 1994

1. Charon (MIT Project), 1989
projected images with synchronized audio narration; 21 minutes

2. Slide Piece, 1972-73
repeated single-slide projection with synchronized audio narration; continuous projection

3. I N I T I A L S, 1994
projected images with synchronized audio narration; 18 minutes

Part II: September 14-December 23, 1994

1. I N I T I A L S, 1994
projected images with synchronized audio narration; 18 minutes

2. La Tache Aveugle, 1979-90
projected black-and-white images; continuous projection

3. Seeing for Oneself, 1987-88
projected black-and-white images with synchronized audio narration; 45 minutes

Part III: December 29-March 12, 1995

1. Background, 1992
projected images with synchronized audio narration; 18 minutes

2. Lapsus Exposure, 1993
projected images with synchronized audio narration; 18 minutes

3. I N I T I A L S, 1994
projected images with synchronized audio narration; 18 minutes


Selected Bibliography

Fisher, Jean. "Inexorable Dissolve: James Coleman Blindsides Art." Artforum 32, no. 4 (December 1993), 48-50, 97.

Gibbons, Luke. "Narratives Of No Return: James Coleman's guaiRE." Artforum 32, no. 4 (December 1993), 50-51, 101.

James Coleman. Lyon: Musée d'Art Contemporain, 1991. Text by Lynne Cooke.

James Coleman. Eindhoven: Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, 1990. Texts by Jan Debbaut and Frank Lubbers.

James Coleman. Paris: Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1989. Text by Fréderic Migayrou.

James Coleman. Dublin: Trinity College, The Douglas Hyde Gallery and The Arts Council of Northern Ireland Gallery, Belfast, 1982. Text by Jean Fisher.

James Coleman: Selected Works. Chicago: Renaissance Society and Institute for Contemporary Art, London, 1985. Texts by Anne Rorimer and Michael Newman.

Michael Asher/James Coleman. New York: Artists Space, 1988. Texts by Jean Fisher, Anne Rorimer, and John Vinci.


Funding

Major funding for this project was provided by the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, Inc. Additional support was received from the Dia Art Council, the major annual support group of the Dia Center for the Arts, and the Dia Art Circle. Support for the 1993-94 exhibitions program has also been provided through a generous grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.




  © 1995-2008 Dia Art Foundation