Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016
Oct 28, 2016–Feb 5, 2017
Dreamlands
Screenings and Programs
Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 focuses on the ways in which artists have dismantled and reassembled the conventions of cinema—screen, projection, darkness—to create new experiences of the moving image. The exhibition will fill the Museum’s 18,000-square-foot fifth-floor Neil Bluhm Family Galleries, and will include a film series in the third-floor Susan and John Hess Family Theater.
The exhibition’s title refers to the science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft’s alternate fictional dimension, whose terrain of cities, forests, mountains, and an underworld can be visited only through dreams. Similarly, the spaces in Dreamlands will connect different historical moments of cinematic experimentation, creating a story that unfolds across a series of immersive spaces.
The exhibition will be the most technologically complex project mounted in the Whitney’s new building to date, embracing a wide range of moving image techniques, from hand-painted film to the latest digital technologies. The works on view use color, touch, music, spectacle, light, and darkness to confound expectations, flattening space through animation and abstraction, or heightening the illusion of three dimensions.
Dreamlands spans more than a century of works by American artists and filmmakers, and also includes a small number of works of German cinema and art from the 1920s with a strong relationship to, and influence on, American art and film. Featured are works in installation, drawing, 3-D environments, sculpture, performance, painting, and online space, by Trisha Baga, Ivana Bašić, Frances Bodomo, Dora Budor, Ian Cheng, Bruce Conner, Ben Coonley, Joseph Cornell, Andrea Crespo, François Curlet, Alex Da Corte, Oskar Fischinger, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre Huyghe, Alex Israel, Mehdi Belhaj Kacem and Pierre Joseph, Aidan Koch, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Anthony McCall, Josiah McElheny, Syd Mead, Lorna Mills, Jayson Musson, Melik Ohanian, Philippe Parreno, Jenny Perlin, Mathias Poledna, Edwin S. Porter, Oskar Schlemmer, Hito Steyerl, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Stan VanDerBeek, Artie Vierkant, and Jud Yalkut, among others.
Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator.
Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 is sponsored by Audi.
Major support is provided by the Dalio Foundation, The Rosenkranz Foundation and the National Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Significant support is provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
Generous support is provided by Alexandre and Lori Chemla, George and Mariana Kaufman, the Orentreich Family Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Additional support is provided by Susan and Matthew Blank. 
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Korakrit Arunanondchai
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2
Trisha Baga
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3
Ivana Bašić
3
4
Jordan Belson
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5
Frances Bodomo
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6
Adebukola Buki Bodunrin and Ezra Claytan Daniels
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7
Robert Breer
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Terence Broad
8
9
Ben Thorp Brown
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10
Dora Budor
10
11
Maïa Cybelle Carpenter
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Ian Cheng
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Bruce Conner
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14
Jacky Connolly
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Ben Coonley
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16
Joseph Cornell
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Andrea Crespo
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François Curlet
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Keren Cytter
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Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson
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Thomas Demand
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Disney Studio Artists
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Dyani Douze and Nontsikelelo Mutiti
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24
Bradley Eros
24
25
Kevin Everson
25
26
Oskar Fischinger
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27
Morgan Fisher
27
28
Ja'Tovia Gary
28
29
Ernie Gehr
29
30
Sandra Gibson
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31
Liam Gillick
31
32
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
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33
Adelita Husni-Bey
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34
Pierre Huyghe
34
35
Alex Israel
35
36
Ken Jacobs
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37
Lawrence Jordan
37
38
Pierre Joseph and Mehdi Belhaj-Kacem
38
39
Aidan Koch
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40
Lynn Hershman Leeson
40
41
Eric Leiser
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42
Jeanne Liotta
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Janis Crystal Lipzin
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Jalal Maghout
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Anthony McCall
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Josiah McElheny
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Sam McKinniss
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48
Syd Mead
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Lorna Mills
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50
Wyatt Niehaus
50
51
Melik Ohanian
51
52
Akosua Adoma Owusu
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53
Philippe Parreno
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54
Jenny Perlin
54
55
Mathias Poledna
55
56
Edwin S. Porter
56
57
Raha Raissnia
57
58
Luis Recoder
58
59
Jennifer Reeves
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60
Oskar Schlemmer
60
61
Pieter Schoolwerth and Alexandra Lerman
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Kerstin Schroedinger and Mareike Bernien
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63
Lily Jue Sheng and Antonia Kuo
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John Stehura
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65
Hito Steyerl
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66
Rirkrit Tiravanija
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Nassiem Valamanesh
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Stan VanDerBeek
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Siebren Versteeg
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Artie Vierkant
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Jennifer West
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Andrew Norman Wilson
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Saya Woolfalk
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Jud Yalkut
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Coco Young
75
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Anna Zett
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Videos
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January 28, 2017: The Spaces of Cinema
Spaces of Cinema
Eric Leiser, Anthropic Principle
Eric Leiser, excerpt from Anthropic Principle
Dreamlands: Lynn Hershman Leeson on Creating an Ideology for the Future
Unravel
Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson, Easternsports, 2014
Ben Coonley, Trading Futures, 2016
Anthony McCall, Line Describing a Cone, 1973
Jud Yalkut, Destruct Film, 1967
New Ways to See: Digital Art Criticism Now
Dreamlands: Lynn Hershman Leeson
Dreamlands: Ben Coonley
Jeanne Liotta, Loretta
Dreamlands: Screenings and Programs
Anna Zett, This Unwieldy Object
Jennifer West, Jam Licking & Sledgehammered Film
Jennifer West, Idyllwild Campfire Smell Film
Jennifer West, Nirvana Alchemy Film
Terence Broad, Blade Runner - Autoencoded
Terence Broad, Blade Runner - Autoencoded
Terence Broad, Blade Runner - Autoencoded
Jennifer Reeves, Landfill
Dreamlands-Sizzle-vD
Adelita Husni-Bey, After the Finish Line
Kerstin Schroedinger and Mareike Bernien, RainbowsGravity
Adebukola Buki Bodunrin and Ezra Claytan Daniels, Golden Chain
Ja'Tovia Gary, An Ecstatic Experience
Ken Jacobs, Seeking the Monkey King
Events
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Thurs,
Mar 15
Art World Insider: Alex Da Corte at Karma Gallery
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Sat,
Feb 4
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sat,
Feb 4
Family Film: Fantasia
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Fri,
Feb 3
Devonté Hynes Performance: Easternsports
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Fri,
Feb 3
Dreamlands Seminar
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Thurs,
Feb 2
Member Night
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Thurs,
Feb 2
Dreamlands Seminar
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Wed,
Feb 1
The Blooming Colors
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Wed,
Feb 1
Dreamlands Seminar
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Mon,
Jan 30
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sun,
Jan 29
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sat,
Jan 28
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sat,
Jan 28
The Spaces of Cinema
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Sat,
Jan 28
Open Studio: Jenny Perlin
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Fri,
Jan 27
Dreamlands Seminar
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Thurs,
Jan 26
Dreamlands Seminar
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Wed,
Jan 25
Contemporaries Tours and Reception: Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016
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Wed,
Jan 25
Contemporaries Tours and Reception: Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016
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Wed,
Jan 25
Reception and Spotlight Tours: Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016
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Wed,
Jan 25
Reception and Spotlight Tours: Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016
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Wed,
Jan 25
Reception and Spotlight Tours: Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016
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Wed,
Jan 25
Dreamlands Seminar
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Mon,
Jan 23
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sun,
Jan 22
Death Is Green
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Sun,
Jan 22
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sat,
Jan 21
Fantasia
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Fri,
Jan 20
The Color of Light
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Thurs,
Jan 19
Dreamlands Seminar
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Wed,
Jan 18
Dreamlands Artist Conversation: Josiah McElheny
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Wed,
Jan 18
Dreamlands Seminar
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Mon,
Jan 16
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sun,
Jan 15
Optipus: The Owl Flies at Twilight
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Sun,
Jan 15
Distant Words;
Dreams and Nightmares -
Sun,
Jan 15
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sat,
Jan 14
Dreamlands Seminar
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Fri,
Jan 13
Feelings are Facts: A Neuro-Cinema
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Fri,
Jan 13
Dreamlands Seminar
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Thurs,
Jan 12
Dreamlands Seminar
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Wed,
Jan 11
Dreamlands Seminar
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Mon,
Jan 9
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sun,
Jan 8
Blade Runner—Autoencoded
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Sun,
Jan 8
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sat,
Jan 7
Dreamlands Seminar
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Fri,
Jan 6
Dreamlands Seminar
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Thurs,
Jan 5
Dreamlands Seminar
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Wed,
Jan 4
Dreamlands Seminar
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Mon,
Jan 2
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sun,
Jan 1
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sat,
Dec 31
Dreamlands Seminar
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Fri,
Dec 30
Dreamlands Seminar
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Thurs,
Dec 29
Dreamlands Seminar
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Wed,
Dec 28
Dreamlands Seminar
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Tues,
Dec 27
Dreamlands Seminar
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Mon,
Dec 26
Dreamlands Seminar
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Sat,
Dec 24
Dreamlands Seminar
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Fri,
Dec 23
Dreamlands Seminar
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Thurs,
Dec 22
Dreamlands Seminar
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Wed,
Dec 21
Dreamlands Seminar
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Mon,
Dec 19
Slides and Mirrors Plays
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Mon,
Dec 19
Dreamlands Seminar
Installation Photography
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 28, 2016–February 5, 2017). Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Dreamlands
screenings and programs
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In the News
"Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016 . . . looks at the incredible ways that artists have manipulated and re-imagined the moving image."
—Paper Magazine"Evolving Images."
—The New York Times"As the line between artist and filmmaker becomes ever less distinct and new technologies ever more accessible, a show devoted to artist’s films seems not only timely but overdue."
—ARTnews"From hand-painted films to a 3-D video projected inside a dome, the Whitney delivers a multisite high-tech exhibition."
—Vulture"Visitors will have a chance to consider how these artists played with color, touch, music, light and darkness, animation and two versus three dimensions."
—Newsday"Dreamlands . . . also includes a small number of works of German cinema and art from the 1920s with a strong relationship to, and influence on, American art and film."
—The Jewish Voice"[Dreamlands] is informative, filled with diverse pleasures, rewards hours of viewing time and reflects a commitment to film in all of its forms maintained by no other New York museum."
—The New York Times". . . an exhibition of expanded cinema, including installations, environments and drawings by Oskar Schlemmer, Stan Vanderbeek, Pierre Huyghe and Hito Steyerl."
—The New York Times
"Dreamlands traces this experimental history to the present day, in all its dazzlingly optical, spatially immersive glory."
—The Wall Street Journal"The Whitney’s Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016 should venture into new territory, spanning over a century and encompassing both commercial and avant-garde endeavors in film . . .."
—The New York Times"Highlighting the advances, both stylistic and technologic, in cinema during the last century, the exhibit will feature animation, 3-D visuals, and installations that use real-time data feeds from the internet."
—NY Press"Beyond making people question the materiality and ephemerality of the filmic image and the cinema apparatus, Burchill and Monti’s series will ideally provoke visual and sensory immersion."
—The Creator's Project"The Moving Image Reimagined in Immersive Exhibit Dreamlands."
—Flavorwire“Feelings are Facts: A Neuro-Cinema at the Whitney Museum”
—Art Zealous"Laid out in a gentle maze of hallways, rooms and open spaces, the show itself has a dreamlike feel, inviting exploration and discovery."
—The Wall Street Journal"It’s about the expansive possibilities of the digital age, the new ways the motion picture...can be an immersive, multidimensional experience, perceptually, physically and conceptually."
—The New York Times"The works in the program feature the study of complete darkness experienced through the retinas and our body. It also explores the materiality and ephemerality of the filmic image and the cinematic apparatus."
—Blouin Art Info"The way over the last century artists have dismantled and rebuilt the concept of cinema, creating through screens, projections and darkrooms, new space-time worlds."
—Vogue (Italy)"The exhibition connects different historical moments of cinematic experimentation via video installation, sculpture and 360-degree camera projected against a cardboard geodesic dome."
—Fader"Dreamlands at the Whitney Museum: Between Illusion and Reality"
—The Wall Street JournalInterview with exhibition curator Chrissie Iles
—Mousse MagazineSunrise
Sunset
A 30-second online art project:
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