Work

Mommy Mommy

Mommy Mommy from Myrel Chernick on Vimeo.

Your Hands Are Tied

1988-90

She was, she wasn’t

A Room Full of Women

View of art installation by Myrel Chernick

A group of women intermingling is filmed in a rectangular white room (a gallery without art, the women becoming the art?). The film is then projected onto a box-like screen which, placed in front of a corner, reproduces the confined space. The film is continuously looped. The spectator, watching, is drawn to the details of gestures and poses, possibly becoming caught up in them. This potential is superseded by other, distancing elements: soundtracks of women’s voices in random conversation, in a structured reading, and an authoritative male voice that directs the viewer to look at the women in three languages. He parodies an elementary language lesson, teaching the look. Fractured paintings and sculptures of women, gestures isolated, are projected over the women in the room, creating parallels with their actual comportment. The entire scene is monitored on videotape to one side and above the scene. There the images are isolated and frozen, increasing the emphasis on looking and watching, to disquieting effect.

1986-87

Woman Mystery/Femme Mystère

1984-86

Don’t Make Waves

She throws a curve. He swells. She waves. He feels an upsurge. She advances an impulse. He curves. She vacillates. He undulates. She varies periodically. The surface is ruffled.
He is on the downswing. He is broken. She was broken. He swells. She waves. She calms. He waved. She was on the downswing. He subsides. He was stormy. She calms.
He is on the downswing. He is broken. She was broken. He swells. She waves. She calms. He waved. She was on the downswing. He subsides. He was stormy. She calms.
Across the room stands the cube where the waves are isolated into single frames. Data is recorded here, but times, dates, cycles are incomplete. Around the back the sun sets on the same watery surface. The wave breaks in an infinite loop. Contrasting images and words create and question relationships between language, image and gender.
Across the room stands the cube where the waves are isolated into single frames. Data is recorded here, but times, dates, cycles are incomplete. Around the back the sun sets on the same watery surface. The wave breaks in an infinite loop. Contrasting images and words create and question relationships between language, image and gender.

Two sculptural elements, a nine-foot rectangular screen placed at a forty-five-degree angle to the wall, and a four-foot cube, function as multi-faceted projection surfaces. A wave breaks on a diagonal screen over the alternating profiles of a man and woman projected on the wall above. The descriptive language of waves informs us of their faltering relationship. Double entendres and altered meanings result.

Parts of Speech

Question: What had become of her?
Answer: Unavailable, undecided, undetermined.

A woman’s face, rotating 360 degrees, dominates the installation. Light as shape, as text, as movement, illuminates and alters space. Corner junctions are distorted, additional planes angle and curve walls and surfaces take on new meaning. The text enters the work visually, directs the eye, and expands the visual barriers of the room.

Alternative Museum, New York, NY

Colors and spatial relationships change. Language is presented as handwriting, as translation, as grammatical construction. Surprises await on the other side.

1979

Surprise

He looked up suddenly, as if I had caught him by surprise
Deconstruction and fragmentation of shapes and texts

Opposite

She would have looked deliberately in the opposite direction
She’s feisty and obdurate, angular and strong. She dares to look.

Halfway there

She’s obdurate, angular and resilient. She dares to look.
She’s obdurate, angular and resilient. She dares to look.

This site specific work from 1978 integrates floor, walls and ceiling. Curved and flat surfaces of light and paper add angles and junctions within the existing space. Shadows become objects. Language exists formally, directing the reading and altering the surrounding space.

Spaces II, S.U.N.Y. College at Old Westbury, Old Westbury, New York