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Art review: William E. Jones at David Kordansky

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Something of an archaeologist of the visual record, William E. Jones takes on central tenets of American political mythology in a trio of projected video works at David Kordansky.

“In Matthew Brady’s Studio” dissects portraits of powerful post-Civil War era Americans who posed in Brady’s photography studio with the accouterments of Classical antiquity. The video is split into three screens, two of which continually zoom in and out on a piece of fabric and a vase of vaguely Classical design. The central image zooms in on the eyes of the men themselves, bringing you up close and personal, but only for a brief moment. The tripartite projection somewhat resembles a dollar bill in format, with its central staring portrait and mélange of neo-Classical decoration. But the frenetic activity of the continual zooming gives the piece a manic, almost crazed energy that suggests a desperate effort to ground a severely divided nation in an altogether invented past.

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By contrast, “Berlin Flash Frames” operates with the elusiveness of memory. Using stills from a propaganda film by the U.S. Information Agency about the Berlin Wall, it depicts crowds on the streets, smiling soldiers and close-ups of individuals, some of which are clearly staged. The images fade in and out of view like flashes of recollection, reappearing in varied sequences that create a sensation of déjà vu. Intermittently, they fade entirely to white, where we strain to see only the barest, smudgy outlines. The result is a partial, evanescent history, a quiet dismantling of grander narratives of American military benevolence.

The third video is derived from footage shot from a U.S. Air Force plane in 1969 as it performed practice maneuvers. It’s not for the queasy. The horizon rotates vertiginously, then dissolves altogether in a blur of rainbow-hued lines that spread, coalesce and skim across the surface, punctuated with intense, stroboscopic flashes of neon color. Turning military might into a psychedelic light show, the work is appropriately, sickeningly beautiful.

-- Sharon Mizota

David Kordansky Gallery, 3143 S. La Cienega Blvd., Unit A, L.A., through March 26. Closed Sundays and Mondays. www.davidkordanskygallery.com

Images: Installation views, ‘William E. Jones,’ 2011, David Kordansky Gallery. Credit: Fredrik Nilsen, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery.

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