Jill Magid’s recent work explores the intersection of governmental power and current events. For MATRIX, Magid considers a shooting at the Texas State Capitol by Fausto Cardenas in relation to Goethe’s Faust, finding in the obvious but ultimately fruitful association similar tragic themes. By turning the gallery into a stage for the reading of Faust, a “closet drama,” the piece engages the larger themes of truth and fiction, language and translation, history and legend, gesture and performance, revelation and redaction, individual and institution.
Image at left: Jill Magid: The Sky From the Capital Steps, 2010; digital photograph; courtesy of the artist and Yvon Lambert, Paris, New York.
Jill Magid: Closet Drama / MATRIX 237
Exhibition Dates: March 20 through June 12, 2011
Opening Performative Lecture and Reception: Sunday March 20, 2011 at 3pm in the Museum Theater, reception to follow in the Bancroft Lobby. Admission is free
UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
2625 Durant Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94720
Press release and image provided by the museum.
Kimberly Kradel
Bryan Stillman
Staff Writer