Black Box: Takeshi Murata

Still from Takeshi Murata, Monster Movie, 2005

May 28 to September 9, 2007
Takeshi Murata (American, b. 1974) takes “found-object” images from feature films and digitally reworks and rejoins them in a technique that might be called electronic painting. Each of his short, hallucinogenic films involves thousands of individually rendered alterations and can take up to a year to complete. The effect is like visual quicksand—as viewers sink in deeper and deeper, they cannot recall which visual shifts led from one to the next. The exhibition included a selection of the artist’s short films, including Monster Movie (2005), featuring scenes the artist sampled from a video of the B-movie Caveman (1981), and Pink Dot (2006), then one of the latest additions to the Hirshhorn’s collection.

The Black Box features recent film and video works by emerging and established international artists. This presentation was organized by Associate Curator Kelly Gordon. Films ran continuously during regular Museum hours.

Support for the Black Box program is provided by Lawrence A. Cohen/Ringler Associates.