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Press Release

Sean Kelly is delighted to announce a major exhibition of new work by Anthony McCall – Leaving (with Two-Minute Silence). The opening will take place on Thursday, December 10th from 6pm until 8pm. The artist will be present.

McCall creates "solid light" works – digital videos of meticulously choreographed intersecting lines and curves which are projected in darkened haze-filled rooms, creating three-dimensional sculptural forms constructed from light. When the viewer moves in and out of the projected light beams, they are forced to reconcile their perceived sense of a three dimensional object in space with the actual reality of the mutable properties of light.

Leaving (with Two-Minute Silence), McCall's newest work, will be installed in the main gallery. This will be his first work in thirty years to include sound, which was produced in collaboration with the musician and composer David Grubbs. The piece consists of two, spatially parallel, projected forms. The first form starts as a complete ellipse, which is systematically cut away until nothing is left. The second form starts with nothing and systematically grows into a complete ellipse. The sonic environment operates as a just-audible 'shroud' which is built from two opposing sound-spaces: the traffic of the city emerging from one side of the space, the liquid sounds of a city harbor from the other. At one moment during each cycle, the motion freezes and the sound vanishes, to produce a transient moment when time stands still.

In addition, a second light projection piece, Meeting You Halfway II, will be installed in gallery two. This will be the first time that two full-scale installations of McCall's work will be shown simultaneously at the gallery. Gallery one will feature new works on paper, including studies for major upcoming public commissions such as McCall's newly awarded Olympics commission for Projected Column, to be installed in the Mersey docks near Liverpool during the 2012 Games. Drawings for his Crossing the Hudson project – a proposal consisting of a 365-day structure for the gradual lighting of a disused railroad bridge on the Hudson River - will also be exhibited.

Anthony McCall's work is included in many major public collections worldwide including: the Tate Gallery, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; and the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt. His most recent exhibitions include Breath [The Vertical Works] at the Hangar Bicocca, Milan, the Creative Time installation Between You and I, at St. Cornelius Chapel on New York's Governor's Island this summer, and the currently running Nu/Now: Anthony McCall at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Checklist

ANTHONY McCALL
Leaving (with Two-Minute Silence)
December 11, 2009 – January 30, 2010


Gallery 1 (clockwise from left)

Study for "Leaving" (360º rotation, seen from the left), 2006
suite of 12 pencil drawings on paper
paper: 12 1/2 x 17 inches (31.8 x 43.2 cm) each
framed: 14 1/8 x 18 1/8 inches (35.9 x 46 cm) each
AMc-10.A

Crossing the Hudson (April 12, the 295th night), 2009
pencil on paper in 3 parts
paper: 43 1/2 x 36 3/8 inches (110.5 x 92.5 cm) each
overall paper dimensions: 43 1/2 x 109 1/4 inches (110.5 x 277.5 cm)
framed: 47 1/2 x 113 1/4 inches (120.6 x 287.7 cm)
AMc-136

Projected Column (Bending in the Wind), 2009
graphite on paper
paper: 55 3/4 x 38 inches (141.6 x 96.5 cm)
framed: 58 1/2 x 41 inches (148.6 x 104.1 cm)
AMc-130

Projected Column (Rising), 2009
set of seven, graphite on paper
paper: 11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm) each
framed: 12 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches (32.4 x 26.7 cm) each
AMc-132a-g

Gallery 2

Meeting You Halfway II, 2009
video projector, computer, digital file, haze machine
one cycle: 15 minutes
variable dimensions
edition of 5 with 1 AP
AMc-137

Main Gallery

Leaving (with Two Minute Silence), 2009
Computer, Quicktime movie file, two video projectors,
two audio speakers, two hazer machines. One cycle: 32 minutes
variable dimensions
edition of 3 plus 1 AP
AMc-117