Doug Aitken: Alpha

Description: "I became restless with the flat surface of the screen so the work gradually evolved into the rest of the space," says Doug Aitken of his multichannel film work. Lately he has been projecting from multiple points onto a single structure. And he has turned from wide-open and lonely landscapes (Electric Earth, Diamond Sea) to wide-open and lonely people (new skin). The protagonist of the surreal Alpha, played by cult actor Udo Kier is both: as he travels, he dematerializes and becomes the space that he inhabits. Luckily for readers, Aitken is as bored with the square shape of the conventional book as he is with the conventional screen: this collection of Alpha images, accompanied by text from the artist, is bound in the shape of a head in profile.

Artwork by Doug Aitken.

Doug Aitken (b. 1968) has created a body of work that explores the evolving ways people experience memory and narrative and relate to fast-paced urban environments. During the past decade, the artist has created innovative contemporary video art by fracturing the narrative structures of his films across multi-screen environments. His work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York (which commissioned a large-scale outdoor video installation--the first of its kind at the venerable institution), and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. In 1999 he was awarded the International Prize at the Venice Biennale, and in 2000 he won the Aldrich Award.