In 2004, Robert Wilson approached VOOM HD Networks, a high definition network of channels owned by Rainbow Media/Cablevision, to support a new high definition video portrait series.

The series takes a minimalist approach but in a theatrical setting punctuated by Wilson’s iconic lighting and high production values. The portraits are infused with source materials found in the history of painting, design, dance, theatre, photography, television, film, and contemporary popular culture. What is especially unique about them is how Wilson situates the subject in a highly constructed or appropriated narrative. Ranging from historical to referential, from serious to abstract, the portraits are always poetic biographies of their subjects.

The VOOM Portraits are shot in the typical horizontal format for television/cinema and in the vertical orientation for exhibition on high-end flat screen monitors. Large monitors are used to create a near 1:1 relationship between viewer and subject. They are looped so there is no discernible beginning or end, so as to run endlessly as a framed work of art. Each portrait has its own sound score that either draws from eclectic source music or is originally composed by some of Robert Wilson’s most important musical collaborators.

The final result may at first look like a still photograph but a closer inspection reveals Wilson’s heightened language of minimal movement, choreographed gesture and precise timing. The high production values in turn reveal Robert Wilson’s art in the shocking clarity and precision of high definition video.

To date, the portrait series has been exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery (January 2007, New York City), Phillips de Pury & Company (January 2007, New York City), Ace Gallery (February 2007, Los Angeles), Triumph Gallery (October 2007, Moscow, Russia), Ekaterina Foundation (October 2007, Moscow, Russia), MADRE (October 2007, Naples, Italy), University of Iowa Museum of Art (January 2008, Iowa). Future exhibitions are currently being scheduled.

Robert Wilson’s Statement
A Still Life is a Real Life

The video portraits can be seen in the three traditional ways that artists construct space. If I hold my hand in front of my face, I can say it is a portrait. If I see my hand at a distance, I can say it is part of a still life, and if I see it from across the street, I can say that it is part of a landscape.

In constructing these spaces, we see an image which can be thought of as a portrait. If we look carefully, this still life is a real life. And in a way, if we think about it and look at them long enough, the mental spaces become mental landscapes.

These portraits stem from a work I did in the 1970s, Video 50. I made various portraits, including surrealist writer Louis Aragon, socialite Hélène Rochas, a duck, a priest I met in a bar, museum director Pontus Hulten, Sony CEO Akito Morita and France’s Minister of Culture Michel Guy. Those portraits could be seen on TV, in galleries, museums, subways, hotel lobbies, airports, or even on the face of a wristwatch.

I imagine the VOOM Portraits being seen in public spaces, as well as at home. At home, they are a kind of window in the room or a fire in the fireplace. Often people ask me, “What are the ideas behind the images?” I do not interpret my work. Interpretation is for others. To fix a meaning to a work limits its poetry and the possibility of other ideas. They are personal, poetic statements of different personalities. A man from the street, an animal, a child, superstars, gods of our time.

THE 22ND FIFA PAID TRIBUTE TO THE WORK OF ROBERT WILSON IN 2004.

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