MIAMI, FLORIDA.- Miami Art Museum has commissioned artists Magdalena Fern醤dez (b. 1964) from Caracas, Venezuela, and Ferr醤 Martin (b. 1968) from New York, to create videos that will be presented at the museum on November 30 and December 2 during Art Basel Miami Beach.

MAM's Associate Curator Cheryl Hartup selected Fern醤dez and Mart韓 because their work embodies many of the ideas in the landmark exhibition Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-70s currently on view at the museum. Themes in Beyond Geometry, such as "The Object and the Body," "Light and Movement" and "Repetition and Seriality," particularly resonate with the work of Fern醤dez and Mart韓. Both artists chose to incorporate in their videos the architectural space of the cultural plaza, which was designed by Philip Johnson (1977-82). Fern醤dez worked with spatial proportions on the fa鏰de of The Historical Museum of Southern Florida where her video Dibujos m髒iles (Moving Drawings) will be projected on December 2. Mart韓's video, El Modulor 3, which was filmed on the cultural plaza, captures architectural elements and designs in the plaza.

Fern醤dez is presenting her first work from her Dibujos m髒iles (moving drawings) video series. Trained as a mathematician, she has always worked with radically simplified forms (points, lines, planes, circles) and systems to create elegant, poetic explorations of space and human perception.

Dibujos m髒iles is a black field with white horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines in a grid formation. The lines seem like they are moving, but they are actually underwater and stable. As the water moves, it gives the impression that the lines are moving. Their mesmerizing undulation suggests electrical currents. What begins as perfect order, becomes writhing chaos. Dibujos m髒iles is related to such works in Beyond Geometry as Sol LeWitt抯 wall drawing of geometric shapes drawn in white chalk on a black wall (1976) and Jes鷖 Rafael Soto抯 black and white Horizontal-Vertical Kinetic Structure (1957).

MAM recently commissioned Fern醤dez to create a work for the exhibition Light and Atmosphere, which is also currently on view. 1i004 is a rigorous yet provocative arrangement of lines and points made of glass mirrors in a room-like enclosure. For Fern醤dez, the atmosphere and meaning of Dibujos m髒iles and 1i004 lie somewhere between the viewer and the work, in the space where the two

Mart韓's El Modulor 3 is a video of the architectural space of the cultural plaza in front of MAM reflected in a mirrored cube on the head of the artist. At the start of the video, the viewer sees only reflections of the artist's surroundings and one gradually becomes aware of a body attached to the cube. The strangely fractured images of geometric tile patterns, arches, and a black, steel lattice gate disorient the viewer and create a sense of claustrophobia. The video is a continuous loop which accentuates the feeling of being in an endless labyrinth. The sky reflected in the glass cube seems to be the only escape.

El Modulor 3 takes its title from the architect Le Corbusier's 1948 book The modulor: a harmonious measure to the human scale universally applicable to architecture and mechanics. Like Corbusier, Mart韓 seems to be interested in the tension between synthesis and visual disorder. Mart韓抯 video resonates with such works in Beyond Geometry as the labyrinth structure of H閘io Oiticica抯 Nucleus 6 from 1960-63 and Robert Smithson抯 Yucatan Mirror Displacements (1-9), 1969.

Fernandez's Dibujos m髒iles will be presented on a plasma screen in MAM's lobby on November 30 from 2 to 6pm during the museum's Beyond Geometry International Roundtable. It will also be projected onto the fa鏰de of The Historical Museum of Southern Florida on December 2 from 6 to 10pm during MAM's Party on the Plaza, a signature Art Basel Miami Beach event. This site-specific outdoor projection measures approximately 35.6 feet high and 27.8 feet wide. Ferr醤 Mart韓's El Modulor 3 will be projected on a monitor on November 30 and December 2 in MAM's lobby.