With her trademark heady mix of bright light, lush colours and zany feminine energy, Pipilotti Rist challenges viewers to look at art differently: whether lying on the floor, peering into a small dark crack in the floor or perched on oversized furniture, she creates in her work an "Alice in Wonderland" sense of wonder.
In this exhibition Pipilotti Rist examines our relationship with the natural environment. Often playing the lead within her films, she re-works the well-worn cliche of woman as a symbol of nature, and man as a symbol of culture. A previously unused still from one of her most famous works, 'Open My Glade' (2000) - originally commisioned to be shown in New York's Times Square - is presented on the front exterior window of FACT. Pipilotti Rist's first public art project in New York, 'Open My Glade' is composed of 16 one-minute video segments which change at a quarter past every hour.
The work appears in the UK for the first time at FACT; it will also appear on the BBC Big Screen in Clayton Square, bringing a new dimension to the piece.
Another work to be seen in the UK for the first time is Rist's 'Gravity Be My Friend' (2007), a site-specific installation originally designed for Magasin 3 StockholmKonsthall in 2007. A visual and sensorial experience, the visitor lies on a "carpet landscape" to watch the work projected above. "I have always been interested in how the body moves in the room in relation to the work of art. The viewing ritual and physical posture appear almost to be given facts," says Pipilotti Rist.
The exhibition also presents a selection of Pipilotti Rist's finest work from the last 15 years including; 'Ever is Over All' (1997), 'Blood Room' (1993/98) and 'Your Space-Capsule' (2006). These works show the artist's progression and her ongoing fascination with viewing spaces, moving image sculpture and ideas around femininity, artistic production and creativity.
Pipilotti Rist
Until 31 August
FACT
Liverpool
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