Microscope is very pleased to present a screening of “A Strange New Beauty”, the latest video work by New York-based artist Shelly Silver. The fifty-minute work, which premiered last year at Cinéma du Réel in Paris and is showing in New York for the first time, reflects upon the idea of beauty, a notion that varies through different cultures and time, with the artist asking “what is our current definition of beauty and what are the implications of this value”.
The work — shot entirely in a Silicon Valley neighborhood and composed of hundreds of static, impeccably framed views of gated mansions, their interiors and private contents — reflects upon the aesthetics of the unseen inhabitants of one of the wealthiest locations in the world. Throughout the work, unsettling sounds and superimposed text, of various sizes and fonts, interfere with and re-contextualize the imagery within current political, economical, and environmental circumstances. And, Silver’s use of fragmentation and multiple screens further serves to disturb the sense of stability and perfection.
A Strange New Beauty asks us to consider the costs of aspirations to beauty; whether beauty is fair; or if the experience of beauty could lead us to justice, as proposed by Elaine Scarry in her book On Beauty and Being Just, which the filmmaker counts among the work’s influences. Silver has described the work as “a difficult film for these difficult times”.
Shelly Silver will be in attendance and available for Q&A following the screening.
Program:
A Strange New Beauty, HD single-channel video, 2017, 50 minutes
A disturbing intrusion into the luxurious homes of Silicon Valley. Using an aggressive soundtrack and a full frame often fractured into small rectangles covered by text, Silver reveals a deafening violence behind the glittering beauty and deceptively calm of this suburban landscape. There is no human presence, but the homes seem to contain a memory of disturbing events, to bear the traces of a savagery just offscreen. — Charlotte Selb, Revue 24 Images
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Shelly Silver is a New York-based artist working with the still and moving image. Her work explores contested territories between public and private, narrative and documentary, and – increasingly in recent years – the watcher and the watched. She has exhibited worldwide, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern, Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Yokohama Museum, the London ICA, and the London, the Singapore, New York, Moscow, and Berlin Film Festivals. Silver has received fellowships and grants from organizations such as the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, NYSCA, NYFA, the Jerome Foundation, the Japan Foundation and Anonymous was a Woman. Her films have been broadcast by BBC/England, PBS/USA, Arte/Germany, France, Planete/Europe, RTE/Ireland, SWR/Germany, and Atenor/Spain, among others, and she has been a fellow at the DAAD Artists Program in Berlin, the Japan/US Artist Program in Tokyo, Cité des Arts in Paris, and at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Silver is Associate Professor of the Visual Arts Program, School of the Arts, Columbia University.