David Castillo Gallery is pleased to present Chained to a Creature of a Different Kingdom, curated by Annie Wharton, and including works by Skip Arnold, Angela Dufresne, aaron GM, Kate Gilmore, Ann Hamilton, Micol Hebron, Dawn Kasper, Susan Lee-Chun, Marilyn Minter, Shana Moulton, Ali Prosch, Yvonne Rainer, Pipilotti Rist, Jimmy Joe Roche, and Mark Verabioff.

The body is a precarious vehicle that propels us around the earth, sometimes at speeds defying logic. Artists in all genres have utilized the body as a subject matter since the beginning of art-making. In Chained to a Creature of a Different Kingdom, the works of 15 video artists who use their bodies and actions as their main subject are assembled. The show’s title is derived from a quote by Marcel Proust, “It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom, whole worlds apart, who has no knowledge of us and by whom it is impossible to make ourselves understood: our body” — and many of the body-based, time-based works within the exhibition beautifully straddle the creative line between madness/”illness” and brilliance.

An exhibition of corporeal, temporal works, the idea of Chained to a Creature of a Different Kingdomwas fueled both by a recent conflagration of performances and performative video works being made, and a dearth of international video exhibitions. The exhibition juxtaposes the extremely physical video works of Skip Arnold, Dawn Kasper, and Ali Prosch with the more narrative ones of Ann Hamilton, Micol Hebron, and Shana Moulton. Humor is a key component to both aaron GM and Angela Dufresne’s work, which quirkily contrast the abstract, non sequitur nature of works made by Jimmy Joe Roche, Marilyn Minter, and Pipilotti Rist. References to popular culture can be found in the “music video” of Mark Verabioff, an ersatz theatre ovation by Kate Gilmore, faux aerobic exercise tapes by Susan Lee-Chun, and a modern dance work by Yvonne Rainer. From humorous to political to surreal to physical, the artists in the show run the gamut of works being made in the genre of action-based video art today.

Annie Wharton is a Los Angeles-based painter, video artist, and writer, who has shown her work in museum and gallery exhibitions internationally. She co-owns The Company, Los Angeles, California, an exhibition space with a progressive video art program in LA’s Chinatown. Wharton writes art criticism with a focus on video art and installation for Flash Art and OC Weekly, and is the West Coast editor and video art critic for Artlurker.

Skip Arnold
Angela Dufresne
aaron GM
Kate Gilmore
Ann Hamilton
Micol Hebron
Dawn Kasper
Susan Lee-ChunMarilyn Minter
Shana Moulton
Ali Prosch
Yvonne Rainer
Pipilotti Rist
Jimmy Joe Roche
Mark Verabioff