Anthony McCall. Breath [The Vertical Works]

In a clouded setting filled with mist, Anthony McCall’s projections create a three-dimensional illusion through abstract shapes that gradually expand, contract, and stroke the space around them like ephemeral architectures. Solid light membranes from above create in fact immaterial spaces, which can be seen only thanks to the movements of the mist. Anthony McCall’s works can be defined as half way between sculpture and cinema. Sculpture because the shapes fill a three-dimensional space, and therefore one can move around them or walk through them; cinema because the shapes and spaces are made of projected light, that little by little changes its form in time. The book “Breath [the vertical works]” analyses the artist’s works from their aesthetic peculiarities through the creative course of the author. The text by Hal Foster is rich in references to 20th century history and philosophy, and puts McCall’s works in the wide context of contemporary artistic research.

Anthony McCall’s exhibition Breath [the vertical works], curated by Serena Cattaneo Adorno, is on display at Hangar Bicocca in Milan from March 20th to June 21st 2009.