GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken was born in Redondo Beach, California in 1968; his works range from photography, film, sound, and video, to sculpture and architectural interventions. As a director of music videos, and an illustrator and photographer for raygun magazine, Aitken works in both the commercial and art worlds, allowing each to inform and enrich the other. He attended Marymount College, Palos Verdes, CA (1986-87) and Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA (1987-91). Aitken's works occupy a realm between pop culture and media art, employing a visual vocabulary that includes Hollywood films and advertising. His installations are often concerned with time, space, and memory, as well as geography and place. Aitken also works with recording artists, making videos for artists such as Iggy Pop and Fatboy Slim. Winner of a prestigious Golden Lion Award for his multi-part video installation Electric Earth (1999) at the 1999 Venice Biennale, Aitken had his first solo museum exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (May 21-August 8, 1999).
Adapted from
- Charles Wylie, "From Object to Image: Sculpture, Installation, Media," in Fast forward: contemporary collections for the Dallas Museum of Art, eds. María de Corral and John R. Lane (Dallas Museum of Art ; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007), 223-227.
- DMA unpublished material.
NOTES
This note was reviewed by the curatorial intern for contemporary art in the fall of 2018, but not reviewed by the curator.
acquisition justification:
California-based Doug Aitken is one of the most innovative artists working with video today. As a director of music videos and an illustrator and photographer for raygun magazine, Aitken works in both the commercial and art worlds, allowing each to inform and enrich the other. Winner of a prestigious Golden Lion Award for his multi-part video installation Electric Earth (1999) at the 1999 Venice Biennale, Aitken had his first solo museum exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (May 21-August 8, 1999), where he exhibited his riveting video/sound installation Diamond Sea (1997), an exploration of a 40,000-square-mile area simply labeled diamond l and 2 ("a blank spot on a map of Namibia"). Similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Diamond Sea takes the viewer on a breathtakingly beautiful journey into a "forbidden zone," an area sealed off from the world since 1908, which contains the oldest desert in the world, the Namib, and the one of the richest diamond mines in the world.
Born in 1968, in southern California (four years after the publication of Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media), Doug Aitken is not cynical about media like an earlier generation of video appropriation artists. He grew up on television programs like School House Rock and The ABC Afterschool Special; in fact, two of his earliest videos to be exhibited in New York were Dawn (1993), a collage of excerpts from four different teenage angst films (one stars Linda Blair), and I'd Die for You (1993), a video of excerpts of 14 John Wayne films in which Wayne is shot, drowned, and beaten. For Aitken, television and movies are "landscapes" to traverse. Media is a center of information, the reality of culture, and affirmation of the present.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS (list applicable note links)
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Doug Aitken The Source~Read and watch conversations between Doug Aitken and various artists presented as part of the 2012 Liverpool Biennial.
- UbuWeb Film & Video~Learn more about Doug Aitken and watch three of his films.
- The Wall Street Journal~Read an article about Doug Aitken's studio.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES (digitized/non-digitized)
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
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apply to objects where constituent_id equals 97789
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General Description
Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken was born in Redondo Beach, California in 1968; his works range from photography, film, sound, and video, to sculpture and architectural interventions. As a director of music videos, and an illustrator and photographer for raygun magazine, Aitken works in both the commercial and art worlds, allowing each to inform and enrich the other. He attended Marymount College, Palos Verdes, CA (1986-87) and Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA (1987-91). Aitken's works occupy a realm between pop culture and media art, employing a visual vocabulary that includes Hollywood films and advertising. His installations are often concerned with time, space, and memory, as well as geography and place. Aitken also works with recording artists, making videos for artists such as Iggy Pop and Fatboy Slim. Winner of a prestigious Golden Lion Award for his multi-part video installation Electric Earth (1999) at the 1999 Venice Biennale, Aitken had his first solo museum exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (May 21-August 8, 1999).
Adapted from
- Charles Wylie, "From Object to Image: Sculpture, Installation, Media," in Fast forward: contemporary collections for the Dallas Museum of Art, eds. María de Corral and John R. Lane (Dallas Museum of Art ; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007), 223-227.
- DMA unpublished material.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
(digitized/non-digitized)
Web Resources
- Doug Aitken The Source~Read and watch conversations between Doug Aitken and various artists presented as part of the 2012 Liverpool Biennial.
- UbuWeb Film & Video~Learn more about Doug Aitken and watch three of his films.
- The Wall Street Journal~Read an article about Doug Aitken's studio.
Notes
This note was reviewed by the curatorial intern for contemporary art in the fall of 2018, but not reviewed by the curator.
acquisition justification:
California-based Doug Aitken is one of the most innovative artists working with video today. As a director of music videos and an illustrator and photographer for raygun magazine, Aitken works in both the commercial and art worlds, allowing each to inform and enrich the other. Winner of a prestigious Golden Lion Award for his multi-part video installation Electric Earth (1999) at the 1999 Venice Biennale, Aitken had his first solo museum exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art (May 21-August 8, 1999), where he exhibited his riveting video/sound installation Diamond Sea (1997), an exploration of a 40,000-square-mile area simply labeled diamond l and 2 ("a blank spot on a map of Namibia"). Similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Diamond Sea takes the viewer on a breathtakingly beautiful journey into a "forbidden zone," an area sealed off from the world since 1908, which contains the oldest desert in the world, the Namib, and the one of the richest diamond mines in the world.
Born in 1968, in southern California (four years after the publication of Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media), Doug Aitken is not cynical about media like an earlier generation of video appropriation artists. He grew up on television programs like School House Rock and The ABC Afterschool Special; in fact, two of his earliest videos to be exhibited in New York were Dawn (1993), a collage of excerpts from four different teenage angst films (one stars Linda Blair), and I'd Die for You (1993), a video of excerpts of 14 John Wayne films in which Wayne is shot, drowned, and beaten. For Aitken, television and movies are "landscapes" to traverse. Media is a center of information, the reality of culture, and affirmation of the present.
rules
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Constituents
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Equals
97789
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artists_and_designers-0058.xml.nores