Eve Sussman Rufus Corporation Video and Photography Stills Opening
April 12, 2013 through August 11, 2013.
bass museum of art
2100 collins avenue
miami beach, fl 33139
The Bass Museum of Art is proud to present the exhibition Eve Sussman | Rufus Corporation, a presentation of the video artist’s recent projects. This exhibition will present two major video installations, including an entirely new exploration of her noted film The Rape of the Sabine Women. A feature-length video-musical, The Rape of the Sabine Women is a contemporary reinterpretation of the eponymous Roman legend. Presented in a traditional five act operatic format set in the 1960s, each of the film’s acts takes place in different locations, including Berlin’s Pergamon Museum and Tempelhof Airport, Athens’ Agora meat market, a classic modern 60’s dream house overlooking the Aegean and Athens’ Herodion Theatre. For this exhibition, Sussman and her team have reedited the film, and she is presenting it in a five-part installation, where each act of the film runs simultaneously in separate spaces.
Also on view will be her 89 Seconds at Alcázar, a twelve-minute film based on the Diego Velazquez’s enigmatic Las Meninas, 1656. In her work, Sussman uses film to elucidate the circumstances of the exact moment that the painting aims to portray. By using a 360º Steadicam, Sussman is able to probe the quotidian scene that has become immortalized in one of Western culture’s most-discussed paintings. In addition to these video works, Sussman will present photographic stills from these films alongside historical portraits from the collection of the Bass Museum of Art.
Eve Sussman founded the Rufus Corporation in 2003. Along with Rape of the Sabine Women, 2004, and 89 Seconds at Alcázar, 2007, the company has collaborated on other projects including Yuri’s Office, 2009, and whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir, 2011. Rufus Corporation’s works have been exhibited and screened internationally and are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Margulies Collection, Miami; Fundación La Caixa, Barcelona; and Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Eve Sussman is a 2010 recipient of the Anonymous was a Woman Award.