Images(12)

Windfall

Object NameVideo

Edition

Artist Beth Lipman (American, b. 1971)

Artist Keith Heyward (American, b. 1984)

Artist Julia C. Liu (American, b. 1983)

Made FromSingle-channel Video, Video Monitor, Apple Mac Mini, Wood

Date2014

Place MadeUnited States, WI, Sheboygan; United States, AK, Lake Clark

SizeFramed Monitor H: 76.8 cm, W: 52.7 cm, D: 14 cm

Accession Number2015.7.2

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

Exhibitions

Alone in the Wilderness

On ViewCMoG Galleries

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

In the 19th century, gazing balls made of blown and silvered glass were used as curiosities in the home or to enliven the garden. The curved, mirrored globes magnified and distorted the viewers’ perception of the environment in which they were placed. The contemporary artist Beth Lipman explores new meanings for the gazing ball by removing it from a domestic garden setting and placing it in a vast, wild landscape. A video camera has replaced the eye of the beholder, and it has recorded 48 hours at Lake Clark in the Alaska wilderness.

Physical DescriptionVideo, "Windfall". Wall-mounted video monitor in white painted wood frame plays a video, on continuous loop, that runs a little over 27 minutes in length. The video documents, in time-lapse photography, 48 hours at Lake Clark-in the Alaskan wilderness-reflected in a spherical, blown silvered glass gazing ball. The gazing ball, made by Lipman, is the subject of the video: it is positioned on a goblet-stem-shaped colorless glass stand (also made by the artist) and the landscape of Lake Clark is experienced through it. The gazing ball itself interacts with the nature it reflects: occasionally dew appears on the glass, or an insect or leaf invades the picture plane. Edition 2/3.
Provenance