Still Life in a White Cube

2019
Moth, Charlotte
Charlotte Moth is fascinated by the spaces and objects among which we live, from apartment blocks to empty streets to striking interiors. Working with photography, film, slide projections and sculptural arrangements, she aims to discover the mysterious in the familiar. Still Life in A White Cube, 2019 refers to Brian O’Doherty’s series of three essays Inside The White Cube (1976), in which he considered the artificiality of the standard gallery space with its four white walls. Moth’s film is made in response to an invitation from CA2M (Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo), a contemporary art centre in Madrid, Spain, to work with the venue’s two collections. The works she created here interrogate the physical properties of the third floor and the staircase that winds through the building, as well as responding to specific works from the collections. Moth was inspired by Leonor Fini’s (1907–96) painted textile works Decorados de fondo para la obra “Sonatina”, 1956, featuring monkeys and exotic birds adorning a tree, as well as by Madrid’s botanical gardens, where she captured footage of a vibrant parrot and sultry black cat. The supposedly sterile gallery space becomes an organic spectacle where natural and artificial feathers, hair and foliage connect with Fini’s interest in animality and transformation.
  • Artwork Details: running time: 8 minutes
  • Edition: 2 of 5 + 1 AP
  • Material description: 16 mm digitally transferred film, colour, sound
  • Credit line: © the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Marcelle Alix, Paris
  • Theme:
  • Medium: Film and Audio Visual
  • Accession number: ACC20/2019

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