West Coast premiere of film installation by British artist
at UC Berkeley Art Museum

November 29, 2000 through January 28, 2001

The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum is proud to present a film installation by British conceptual artist Tacita Dean as part of its 22-year old MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art. Tacita Dean/MATRIX 189 Banewl was shot on a dairy farm in Cornwell, England, during the total solar eclipse that occurred on August 11, 1999. 'Banewl' is how the Cornish locals pronounce Burnewhall, the name of a small dairy farm near St. Buryan. Using four cameras - one tracking the movement of the sun, one on the sky, one on the landscape, and one roving - Dean captured the event from the overcast morning to the faint appearance of the partially eclipsed sun late in the day. The resulting installation is a subtle, contemplative work whose effect is almost that of a traditional British pastoral landscape painting brought to life.

Dean presents the day's occurrences at the dairy farm within a framework of opposing pairs: time against sequence, image against sound, day against night, light against dark, sun against moon, and even the distinction between the actual and phonetic spelling of Burnewhall. In common with many of her other projects, Banewl has an underlying obsessive quality, in this case apparent in the careful recounting and juxtaposition of a once-in-a-lifetime event from different viewpoints, the essence of which may be an attempt to reveal connections between seeming opposites.

Tacita Dean is internationally renowned as an artist combining drawing, film, and installation work. She has exhibited at the Witte de Witte in Rotterdam, Tate Gallery in London, and this summer had a major solo exhibition at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel, Switzerland. In 1998 Dean was nominated for the Tate Gallery's prestigious Turner Prize.

Public Programs
Tacita Dean/MATRIX 189 Banewl
Walkthrough with Curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
Thursday, January 25, 12:15 p.m.
MATRIX Curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson will speak about Banewl in relation to Dean's diverse body of work, and will explore the implications of the artist's choice of film as a medium.

Upcoming MATRIX exhibitions
Ernesto Neto/MATRIX 190
February 18 - April 6, 2001
Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto creates sculptural works and installations that engage the body on multiple levels, often incorporating sensuous materials that provoke viewers into interaction. In early works, Neto filled small lycra sacks with colorful and aromatic substances such as chili powder and coriander. Other works have included "huggable" sculptural pieces, and large-scale, womb-like installations made from synthetic fabrics, that span the gallery space and invite audience participation, daring spectators to enter and explore. For this exhibition - his first solo museum exhibition on the West Coast - Neto will create a new site-specific installation in the Phyllis Wattis MATRIX Gallery.