For her first exhibition in Russia, Sam Taylor-Wood is presenting three photographic series alongside three video projections. Produced over the past two years, this body of work continues the artist’s exploration into the physical and emotional limits of individuals operating in contemporary society. Often using subversive or enigmatic images, Taylor-Wood exposes extremes psychological and physical states – joy and despair, screaming and muteness, religious ecstasy and emotional release, gravity and weightlessness, presence and absence.  

In her new series Crying Men, well-known actors – Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Paul Newman and Lawrence Fishburne are displayed not as celebrities but in various states of emotional breakdown. Directed by the artist to perform in front of the camera, they provide an intimate account of a sustained cinematic performance, making us question both the authenticity of the photographic medium and the response of the individuals themselves. In a very different way, her new series of Self-Portraits Suspended tests the physical boundaries of existence. Suspended in her studio using ropes (which are then digitally removed from the photographic prints), the artist appears recumbent, levitating or falling in a series of attempts to achieve a moment of ‘absolute release and freedom’.

Similarly in her two new videos Ascension and Strings, other seemingly ‘impossible’ scenarios are played out. In Ascension the artist has created a macabre mise-en-scene in which a suited man tap-dances nonchalantly on the chest of another man, while a dove perches on his head. In Strings, a musical quartet plays Tchaikovsky’s Quartet no 2 in F Major op 22 unaware of the fact that a male ballerina is performing a classical choreography above their heads. As well as referencing historical religious painting, these works recall the artist’s childhood fantasies as well as real-life adult experiences.

A 32 page booklet is being produced in Russia to accompany the exhibition comprising a selection of images, essays by Alexander Borovsky Head of the Contemporary Department of the State Russian Museum and  Olesya Turkina, Curator, State Russian Museum and an interview with the artist and Russian critic Nana Zhvitiashvili. Following its launch at the 18th century Engineers Palace in St Petersburg, now part of the State Russian Museum, the exhibition will be shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Moscow. For further information please contact Brett Rogers

Venues:
Engineers Palace, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
25 November 2004 – 16 January 2005

Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow  
25 May – 25 July 2005