John Knecht: Animating Destiny
This retrospective of video artist John Knecht's recent work included both animated videos (viewed in a specially created viewing room within the museum) and works on paper depicting many of the surreal situations referred to in Knecht's video work. The catalog featured an essay by media artist and theorist Keith Sanborn.
Knecht's videos are dreamlike narratives illustrating philosophical journeys taken by invented characters. The artist's transformation of metaphysics is humorous, poetic, complex, and sociopolitically charged. This exhibition allowed a different audience to see the work of an artist who had previously been featured mainly at media centers. It also brought video into the museum--not in the form of a grandiose installation, but as a secluded and meditative space where audiences could sit in comfort to view the short works. Funded by the New York State Council on the Arts.
