Pierre Huyghe
1962–
Pierre Huyghe rose to prominence during the 1990s, when many conceptual artists were exploring relational aesthetics, an approach that emphasized the creation of participatory experiences rather than the production of discrete art objects. Huyghe constructs situations that draw attention to the human condition and our place in the world in work that often exists simultaneously in multiple forms, including research projects, staged events, and film or video documentation.
Many of Huyghe’s narratives blur the distinctions between reality and fantasy. His A Journey That Wasn’t, which premiered at the 2006 Whitney Biennial, is part documentary film and part reenactment. Slipping nimbly between fact and fiction, it represents the artist’s journey to Antarctica and his search for a species of albino penguin rumored to exist on a glacial island. While in the antarctic Huyghe encountered islands of ice that had detached from the main continent due to global warming and he translated this shifting topography into pulsing signals of light based on Morse code. These signals were later used by the composer Joshua Cody as the basis for an original orchestral piece performed at an ice skating rink in New York’s Central Park. In the resulting film, scenes from the musical performance punctuate documentary footage of the artist’s voyage resulting in a series of poetic juxtapositions and a film that plumbs the translation from experience to documentation and documentation to artistic form.
Introduction
Pierre Huyghe (born 11 September 1962) is a French contemporary artist, who works in a variety of media from films and sculptures to public interventions and living systems. He lives and works in Paris and New York.
Wikidata identifier
Q1370630
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed November 14, 2024.
Introduction
Huyghe's films and videos critique American cinema and media in general. He works in various modes including the creation of installations involving live animals, light, fog, or ice. He was the subject of a traveling retrospective in 2014.
Country of birth
France
Roles
Artist, conceptual artist, video artist
ULAN identifier
500116146
Names
Pierre Huyghe
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed November 14, 2024.
