WINSTON-SALEM, NC.- The final leg of peter campus' traveling survey exhibition, video ergo sum opened in Winston-Salem. Curated by Anne-Marie Duguet, the exhibition originated at the Jeu de Paume, Paris in 2017, before traveling to the CAAC, Seville; Culturgest, Lisbon; and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York. video ergo sum is on view concurrently at two institutions in Winston-Salem: Hanes Art Gallery – Wake Forest University from September 2nd through December 8th, and SECCA from September 7th through December 29th. Two recent works by campus are also being presented at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art alongside modernist paintings from their collection through December 31st. This collaboration between the three institutions results in the largest presentation of campus’ work to date.
Following studies in experimental psychology and film, campus began to create a series of innovative videos and closed-circuit installations in 1970. Their conceptual and technical skill, combined with their psychological and cognitive content, resulted in widespread attention by art critics and scholars. campus’ works subsequently became an important point of reference in the history of moving image.
In the works produced from 1971-76, campus explored issues of spatial awareness and identity construction through the use of unusual perspectives, closed-circuit video, precise editing, and multiple timeframes. Newer works, on the other hand, largely forego the body to instead feature landscapes—particularly the sea—and other objects affected by time, natural phenomena, or human activity. In these later examples campus works on his digital images like a painter: colors are expressively heightened, forms are given hyperrealistic definition, actions are slowed, and visual idiosyncrasies are introduced. The exhibitions at Hanes and SECCA display works from these different periods in the artist’s career side-by-side, underscoring how campus has continually pushed the boundaries of the medium for nearly 50 years.
Artworks being exhibited at Hanes Art Gallery – Wake Forest University include the videos and video installations Kiva, 1971; Optical Sockets, 1972-73; Three Transitions, 1973; Set of Coincidence, 1974; Third Tape, 1976; a wave, 2009; and Convergence d’images vers le port, 2016 (commissioned by the Jeu de Paume); as well as two black and white photographs from 1978-79.
Artworks being exhibited at SECCA include the videos, installations, and photo projections Interface, 1972; Anamnesis, 1973; dor, 1975; Head of a Man with Death on His Mind, 1976; half-life, 1987; and barn at north fork, 2010.
Artworks being exhibited at Reynolda House Museum include red fence, 2013; and dusk at shinnecock bay, 2010.
peter campus (b. 1937, New York) is a seminal figure in the history of video and new media art. One of the very first to pick up a video camera and create art, campus' works are part of numerous collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Tate Modern, London; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; San Francisco Museum of American Art, San Francisco; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Fondation Cartier; Fondation Berne; and the Kramlich Collection. The artist lives and works in Long Island, NY.
