1. Narrative in
contemporary
Art

2. While there has always been a narrative thread in my work, as there is in almost all painting--even abstract painting--I've generally tried to keep it autonomous to and within the painting. I've wanted to illuminate a pathway rather than illustrate a story. In the past, if I were to use an image of a glass of water, for instance, I would try to make a new connection to some not water images. When I was young, I didn't want to be understood too quickly, though I realized that sometimes you just end up concealing rather than revealing yourself. Now those kinds of more literal, narrative connections wouldn't faze me. I might even find them reassuring. Still, this is the first time I've consciously kept a family of images tied together, like spokes in a wheel. The challenge here was to develop a correspondence among the emotional, narrative, and thematic lines of the subject matter and the formal considerations that generally occupy me--how to, for example, connect images of Hurricane Katrina from the New York Times to the Michelangelo scenes. It was interesting to see that doing this didn't kill the painting; it didn't kill the art. We live in a moment that is so crisis-laden that biblical or apocalyptic metaphors seem appropriate--and the scale seems right--whereas in another time they might have felt preposterous.
David Salle

3. Charles Avery Nathaniel Mellors

4. «24 Hour Psycho» Realistically, no one can watch the whole of 24 Hour Psycho, which consists of Alfred Hitchcock’s film «Psycho» (1960) slowed down so that a single, continuous viewing lasts for twenty-four hours. While we can experience narrative elements in it (largely through familiarity with the original), the crushing slowness of their unfolding constantly undercuts our expectations, even as it ratchets up the idea of suspense to a level approaching absurdity. (source: Russell Ferguson, «Trust Me,» in: Douglas Gordon, Cambridge/MA, 2001, p. 16.) [

5. Bill Viola
The Crossing undermines our notion of video as fast-paced, easily understood, and narrative. To describe the video is not just to spoil the "plot"—it really has none—but, more importantly, to trivialize the experience. Suffice it to say that Viola uses slow motion and sound to confront and challenge viewers to reconsider instances of metaphysical transformation. In short, Viola employs this new age medium of figuration and sound to investigate the question of human mortality and resilience—issues that have preoccupied artists through the ages.

6. Mathew Barney

7. Kara Walker “Darkytown Rebellion" 2001 Installation view at Brent Sikkema, New York Projection, cut paper and adhesive on wall, 14 x 37 1/2 feet VIDEO: Light Projections

8. Lyndsey Seers & Spartacus Chetwynd's

9. Neo narratives essay
original text © modernedition 2009 / mike brennan