An exquisite distillation of Beckett’s worldview, made from some of the most unlikely material imaginable: celebrity and high technology. - The New York Times
Robert Wilson’s video portraits are staged tableaux of artists, musicians, actors and other personalities, presented on high-definition flat screens. The sitters are captured in near-motionless poses, instructed by Wilson to “think of nothing” and limit their gestures to one or two movements in very slow motion. The portraits manifest Wilson’s acclaimed sense of color and light, and draw upon his interests in theater, design, music, cinema, and performance.
This viewing room features a large portrait of Winona Ryder as Winnie, the main female character in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days. Buried up to her neck in a mound of sand, Winona/Winnie gazes in the distance. As the sun rises and sets above her, some of Winnie’s accessories in the play (a toothbrush, a handbag and a gun) progressively become visible and invisible again.
Wilson describes the portraits: “I think these works can be seen in numerous ways. They can be seen in museum spaces. They can be seen in subway stops. They can be seen in places where people are queuing in airports. They could be on the face of a wristwatch. They could be on TV. They could be an image in your home. They can be hanging on a wall. They could be in a fireplace—the way we have a fire. On a wall at home, they can be like a window—a window that shows us another world. It’s something very personal. It’s a document of our time. They are what I call portraits.”
In 2004, VOOM HD Networks named Robert Wilson an Artist-in-Residence to develop a project which would showcase the aesthetic and technical brilliance of the emerging HDTV medium.
Winona Ryder: Happy Days was first exhibited at Paula Cooper Gallery in 2007.
Performance: Winona Ryder
Concept and Direction: Robert Wilson
Music: Michael Galasso
Production: VOOM, Dissident Industries, Inc.
Viewing Room Concept and Development: Owen Laub