ART PRESENTATION: Isaac Julien-Western Union:Small Boats

Isaac Julien, Western Union Series no. 1 (Cast No Shadow), 2007, Duratrans image in lightbox, 120 x 120 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro-LondonIsaac Julien is as acclaimed for his fluent, arresting films as his vibrant and inventive gallery installations. One of the objectives of his work is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting them to construct a powerfully visual narrative.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: ARoS Aarhus Art Museum Archive

Isaac Julien’s solo exhibition “Western Union: small boats” at ARoS Museum, opens a new series of exhibitions in the Focus Gallery in 2018. The series is called “Intermezzo” and shows art where the perception and appreciation of the works of art is facilitated via other faculties beside vision. Enclosed in a totally blue room, Isaac Julien presents his three screen film installation “Western Union: small boats” (2007 that brings together baroque pageantry and metaphor in a work that, referring to journeys made across the Mediterranean by Asians and Africans trying to enter Europe by sea, experiments with notions of cultural entanglement and the dissent between aesthetics and politics. The work was produced at a time of debate about immigration policies and the relations between the individual and the geopolitical. Julien traces the effects of trauma, not just on people but also on buildings, monuments, architecture and life, by relocating these themes in a poetic manner. This work has won numerous awards, including the Charles Wollaston Award and portrays the refugee crisis unfolding in Europe in recent years where especially the southern Italian island of Lampedusa has become known as a reception centre for refugees. Due to its sheer beauty, the island has been also a popular destination for tourists. Julien came to prominence in the film world with his 1989 drama-documentary “Looking for Langston”, gaining a cult following with this poetic exploration of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. During the past two decades he has made work largely, though not exclusively, for galleries and museums, using multi-screen installations to express fractured narratives exploring memory and desire. Julien’s major film installations include the seven-screen “PLAYTIME” (2014), which explores the dramatic and nuanced subject of financial capital. The work comprises three chapters set across three cities defined by their relationship to capital: London, a city transformed by the deregulation of banks; Reykjavik, where the 2008 crisis began; and Dubai, one of the Middle East’s burgeoning financial markets. Part documentary and part fiction, the work interconnects major figures in the world of art and finance with the real stories of those deeply affected by the crisis and the global flow of capital. Julien’s critically-acclaimed nine-screen film installation “Ten Thousand Waves” (2010), explores China’s ancient past and rapidly transforming present through a series of interlocking narratives. Starring, among others, Maggie Cheung, the legendary siren of Chinese cinema, and filmed on location in the ravishing and remote Guangxi province and at the famous Shanghai Film Studios and various sites around Shanghai, the work combines fact, fiction and film essay genres against a background of Chinese history, legend and landscape to create a meditation on global human migrations. Through formal experimentation and a series of unique collaborations, Julien seeks to engage with Chinese culture through contemporary events, ancient myths and artistic practice. The original inspiration for “Ten Thousand Waves” was the Morecambe Bay tragedy of 2004, in which 23 Chinese cockle-pickers died.

Info: Curator: Lise Pennington, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aros Allé 2, Aarhus, Duration: 3/2-27/5/18, Days & Hours: Tue & Thu-Sun 10:00-17:00, Wed 10:00-22:00, https://en.aros.dk

Isaac Julien, Western Union Series no. 8 (Sculpture for the New Millennium), 2007, Duratrans image in lightbox, 120 x 300 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro-London
Isaac Julien, Western Union Series no. 8 (Sculpture for the New Millennium), 2007, Duratrans image in lightbox, 120 x 300 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro-London

 

 

Isaac Julien, Western Union Series no. 9 (Shipwreck - Sculpture for the New Millennium), 2007, Duratrans image in lightbox, 120 x 300 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London
Isaac Julien, Western Union Series no. 9 (Shipwreck – Sculpture for the New Millennium), 2007, Duratrans image in lightbox, 120 x 300 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London

 

 

Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith
Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith

 

 

Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith
Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith

 

 

Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith
Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith

 

 

Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith
Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith

 

 

Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith
Isaac Julien Western Union: Small Boats, 2007 Five-screen projection, 16mm film transferred to digital, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 18’22’’ © 2017 The Royal Academy of Arts, Photo: Marcus Leith