Still Portraits Come Alive

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avant-garde, Bass Museum of Art, digital art, exhibit, HD, live art, Robert Wilson, VOOM portraits

home > arts,culture&fashion > Still Portraits Come Alive

June 23, 2008 4:16 PM
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[Article written by: Sandra Hurtado]

VOOM Portraits, currently showing at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, is the brainchild of avant-garde artist Robert Wilson, in collaboration with VOOM HD Networks, and the must-see exhibition of the summer. The exhibit is comprised of one-of a-kind, completely high-definition, portraits that look like paintings but have slight movement and original scores that accompany each piece.

Every portrait, a continuous video loop, is displayed on a 65-inch plasma and is equipped with a single unit stereo and HD media player. The portraits were not the first of its kind for Wilson as he had played with video in the 70’s and 80’s doing portraits as well.

“The video technology available at the time limited what I could do with lighting and setting up the image. It was only when Noah Khoshbin [producer and collaborator] showed me what can be done in high definition video that I decided to create a bigger group of works in this medium,” Wilson said.

At first glance, and still after staring for awhile, some parts of the dramatic portraits seem painted, and then the moving parts finally convince the eye that it is a video. The extremely controlled movements can be as subtle as the blinking of eyes and breathing, or a little bolder like the smoking of a cigarette or the raising and shooting of a water gun. “I almost always have an idea in my head…once I have a concept, I sketch it out in pencil on paper, almost like a storyboard,” Wilson said.

As such a renowned figure in the art world, Wilson was able to round up prominent figures and performers such as Princess Caroline of Monaco, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Isabella Rosallini, Sean Penn, Macualay Culkin, and many more. He even managed to incorporate animals in the collection—which is amazing considering that the production of each portrait consists of several hours of continuous filming—and one particular auto mechanic, Norman Paul Flemming, who was spotted by Khoshbin at a gas station.

“Noah shot Norman's photo and we asked him right away if he was free that afternoon, we did the video portrait of him sitting at a wooden table, like a Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting,” Wilson explained.

The inspiration behind every portrait and what each subject was going to do or portray themselves as stems from not only the reality of who the subject is, but also whom or what they remind Wilson of.

“Sometimes, I see an image – it can be a film still, a painting, an ad in the paper – and think of someone who might incorporate it. Sometimes, I see a face or a person and have an idea of how to present him or her as a VOOM Portrait,” Wilson said.

When asked which portrait was his favorite, Wilson responded like any good father:
“I don’t have a favorite portrait. It’s like asking which child is your favorite. To me, the portraits are like windows. They show different scenes, and sometimes you stop longer looking at one than you do at another.”