The latest installation at The Bell relies heavily on video animations. There’s nothing wrong with that, but in the past, benches have been provided for contemplating and losing oneself in a new world. (The extraordinary in Pursuit of Venus Infected from 2022 comes to mind.) Perhaps artist Julien Creuzet wanted viewers to roam about, but be aware of the “massive steel floor sculptures” strewn across the floor. (The curator describes these as “mercurial amalgams of tropical foliage and animals silhouetted and superimposed onto islands of layered meaning and metaphor.” Do they teach this writing at art school?) The exhibition runs through June 1st and has a very long title (see below).
Julien Creuzet . . . has reimagined his French Pavillion from the 60th Venice Biennale for The Bell. An immersive video and archipelagic sculptural installation, Attila cataract your source at the feet of the green peaks will end up in the great sea blue abyss we drowned in the tidal tears of the moon (2024) extends Creuzet’s focus on water as a site of both historical and contemporary traumas and emancipatory futures. A liquid ecosystem of voice, texture, sound, and moving image as divine presence, this multisensorial project is deeply sonic and draws from hip-hop, jazz, and other musical forms and bodily gestures across the African diaspora. Creuzet’s artistic practice has long referenced legacies of colonialism, and his challenge to the architecture and history of the French Pavilion extends to Brown University’s campus and Providence’s centrality within the Black Atlantic.
Here’s what this all looked like in Venice. Frankly, I prefer The Bell staging, but immersive it is not. One never forgets that these are videos being projected onto screens. The animation in the one furthest in back was the most compelling; I stood in front of that one for awhile.
The David Winton Bell Gallery is now known as The Bell. The shows are free and open to the public.
Attila cataract (…) through June 1st, The Bell, 64 College Street, (directions)
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“Long pole sculptures that are knotted and fringed with the fibrous vocabulary of Creuzet’s sculptural practice. Structuring shapes are wrapped in multiple layers of string, rope, and twine that incorporate found objects into their design and leave tendrils to drape towards the ground, often directly engaging with his metal floor pieces.” Kate Kraczon, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions, The Bell.
