Open today: 10:30 am–10 pm
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.
1
Korakrit Arunanondchai

Korakrit Arunanondchai
2
Trisha Baga

Trisha Baga
3
Ivana Bašić

Ivana Bašić
4
Jordan Belson

Jordan Belson
5
Frances Bodomo

Frances Bodomo
6
Adebukola Buki Bodunrin and Ezra Claytan Daniels

Adebukola Buki Bodunrin and Ezra Claytan Daniels
7
Robert Breer

Robert Breer
8
Terence Broad

Terence Broad
9
Ben Thorp Brown

Ben Thorp Brown
10
Dora Budor

Dora Budor
11
Maïa Cybelle Carpenter

Maïa Cybelle Carpenter
12
Ian Cheng

Ian Cheng
13
Bruce Conner

Bruce Conner
14
Jacky Connolly

Jacky Connolly
15
Ben Coonley
Ben Coonley
16
Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell
17
Andrea Crespo

Andrea Crespo
18
François Curlet

François Curlet
19
Keren Cytter

Keren Cytter
20
Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson

Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson
21
Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand
22
Disney Studio Artists

Disney Studio Artists
23
Dyani Douze and Nontsikelelo Mutiti

Dyani Douze and Nontsikelelo Mutiti
24
Bradley Eros

Bradley Eros
25
Kevin Everson

Kevin Everson
26
Oskar Fischinger

Oskar Fischinger
27
Morgan Fisher

Morgan Fisher
28
Ja'Tovia Gary

Ja'Tovia Gary
29
Ernie Gehr

Ernie Gehr
30
Sandra Gibson

Sandra Gibson
31
Liam Gillick

Liam Gillick
32
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
33
Adelita Husni-Bey

Adelita Husni-Bey
34
Pierre Huyghe

Pierre Huyghe
35
Alex Israel

Alex Israel
36
Ken Jacobs

Ken Jacobs
37
Lawrence Jordan

Lawrence Jordan
38
Pierre Joseph and Mehdi Belhaj-Kacem

Pierre Joseph and Mehdi Belhaj-Kacem
39
Aidan Koch

Aidan Koch
40
Lynn Hershman Leeson

Lynn Hershman Leeson
41
Eric Leiser

Eric Leiser
42
Jeanne Liotta

Jeanne Liotta
43
Janis Crystal Lipzin

Janis Crystal Lipzin
44
Jalal Maghout

Jalal Maghout
45
Anthony McCall

Anthony McCall
46
Josiah McElheny

Josiah McElheny
47
Sam McKinniss

Sam McKinniss
48
Syd Mead

Syd Mead
49
Lorna Mills

Lorna Mills
50
Wyatt Niehaus

Wyatt Niehaus
51
Melik Ohanian

Melik Ohanian
52
Akosua Adoma Owusu

Akosua Adoma Owusu
53
Philippe Parreno

Philippe Parreno
54
Jenny Perlin

Jenny Perlin
55
Mathias Poledna

Mathias Poledna
56
Edwin S. Porter

Edwin S. Porter
57
Raha Raissnia

Raha Raissnia
58
Luis Recoder

Luis Recoder
59
Jennifer Reeves

Jennifer Reeves
60
Oskar Schlemmer

Oskar Schlemmer
61
Pieter Schoolwerth and Alexandra Lerman

Pieter Schoolwerth and Alexandra Lerman
62
Kerstin Schroedinger and Mareike Bernien

Kerstin Schroedinger and Mareike Bernien
63
Lily Jue Sheng and Antonia Kuo

Lily Jue Sheng and Antonia Kuo
64
John Stehura

John Stehura
65
Hito Steyerl

Hito Steyerl
66
Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija
67
Nassiem Valamanesh

Nassiem Valamanesh
68
Stan VanDerBeek

Stan VanDerBeek
69
Siebren Versteeg

Siebren Versteeg
70
Artie Vierkant

Artie Vierkant
71
Jennifer West

Jennifer West
72
Andrew Norman Wilson

Andrew Norman Wilson
73
Saya Woolfalk

Saya Woolfalk
74
Jud Yalkut

Jud Yalkut
75
Coco Young

Coco Young
76
Anna Zett

Anna Zett
Installation Photography
Dreamlands
screenings and programs
Exhibition Catalogue
This generously illustrated publication surveys the work of filmmakers and artists who have pushed the material and conceptual boundaries of cinema through explorations of how technology transforms experience. The essays published here offer an intensive look at the themes of cinematic space, formats of the screen, animation and CGI, the body and the cyborg, and the materiality of film. Contributors place particular emphasis on the idea of the cinema as a sensorium and on the ways in which it defines the human body, both through representation and in relation to the projected image.
An essay by Chrissie Iles titled “The Cyborg and the Sensorium” is available to read below. The catalogue also includes essays by Karen Archey, Giuliana Bruno, John Canemaker, Brian Droitcour, Noam M. Elcott, Tom Gunning, J. Hoberman, Esther Leslie, and David Lewis.
Buy nowIn 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 Journal
Interview with exhibition curator Chrissie Iles
—Mousse Magazine