CUT/Film as Found Object is a fascinating installation consisting of 14 video works by some of today's most influential artists. CUT explores how contemporary artists use excerpts from pre-existing films and television to create new narratives, different emotional content and new musical scores. Artists featured include Christian Marclay, Pierre Huyghe and Douglas Gordon. The exhibition is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum with the assistance of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami. Curated by Stefano Basilico.
This work uses as its raw material footage from 21 different films in which the city of Las Vegas is used as a setting. Each individual shot is organised according to descriptive categories and taken as a lesson learnt from or about the city of Las Vegas and its inhabitants. For example, ‘learning from fountains’ includes all shots of exuberantly erupting fountains. The idiscs are embedded in an elaborately wall papered suitcase.
This work is based on the climatic chase sequence from Evil Dead II. The artists re-enact the scene on a specially designed stage set. Each shot in the sequence is individually digitized. Custom computer software selects these clips at random, playing them back in a seamless but continuously variable way, changing the speed and direction of play. The images are projected at cinematic scale and the computer hardware is installed in a black briefcase, which forms part of the installation.