Purple (2017 video installation)

Purple is a 62-minute immersive six-channel video installation created by the British artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah in 2017.[1] It draws from hundreds of hours of archival footage and combines with newly shot film, spoken word, and original music to explore climate change and its effects on human communities, biodiversity and the wilderness.[2] It is divided into five movements and includes locations such as Alaska, Greenland, New York, Mumbai, rural Scotland, Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific.

Purple
Purple in 2022 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
ArtistJohn Akomfrah
Year2017 (2017)
MediumSix-channel video, color, sound
Dimensions180 cm × 370 cm (72 in × 144 in); Variable
LocationHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Accession2021.013 (Hirshhorn); 2020.04 (ICA Boston)

It was commissioned by the Barbican, London and co-commissioned by Bildmuseet, Sweden; TBA21-Academy; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon; and Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow.[2] It premiered at the Curve, Barbican in October 2017 where it exhibited for nine weeks.[3]

Purple was jointly acquired by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, in 2021.[4][5]

Exhibition history

Soundtrack

The installation's original score was composed by Tandis Jenhudson and David Julyan.[14]

Reception

The Telegraph gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "Akomfrah drives home his concerns with compelling clarity, sparking off chains of association that are grimly disturbing while offering a reminder of all the beauty that we stand to lose".[15]

The Guardian commented that "Akomfrah's overwhelming film evokes that very dilemma: our apparent helplessness as individuals in the face of rising sea levels and temperatures, droughts, and melting icecaps. Against a stirring contemporary classical soundtrack, his film begins by summoning up the momentum of industrial England, a world of mass production that signals - but is utterly unlike - the hyper-reality of contemporary globalism and digital interconnectivity".[16]

Time Out gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, stating "it can be frustrating being preached to when you’re in the choir, especially when Akomfrah isn’t offering any solutions or new comments. He’s just presenting all these horrifying visions of humanity’s impact on the planet. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe Akomfrah is just overwhelmed, helpless and shocked in the face of our idiocy, standing slack-jawed under the Anthropocene’s wave of effluent. Maybe this is the only way he can start to make sense of it all."[17]

City A.M. described it as a "wildly ambitious project is undertaken by documentary-maker and artist John Akomfrah, whose resulting video montage is at once mesmerizing, meditative and melancholy, a wild and sometimes overwhelming voyage through our lives on both a micro and macro scale." It went on to state that "It’s a wonderful piece of work, both uplifting and haunting, and a reminder that we all need to be better."[18]

References
  1. "John Akomfrah | Barbican". www.barbican.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  2. "John Akomfrah 'Purple' opens at ICA Boston | News". www.lissongallery.com. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  3. "John Akomfrah to premiere new commission at the Barbican in October". www.lissongallery.com. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  4. "Purple". ICABoston. Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
  5. "Purple". Hirshhorn. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
  6. "Exposición - Purple, by John Akomfrah". Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  7. "John Akomfrah's Purple opens at Bildmuseet". Mynewsdesk. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  8. "John Akomfrah. Purple". en.museuberardo.pt. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  9. "John Akomfrah: Purple | icaboston.org". www.icaboston.org. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  10. "John Akomfrah Purple". Garage. Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. Archived from the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  11. "Museum Kurhaus Kleef - Tentoonstellingen - John Akomfrah". www.museumkurhaus.de. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  12. "MutualArt.com - The Web's Largest Art Information Service". www.mutualart.com. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  13. "John Akomfrah: Purple". hirshhorn.si.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-28.
  14. "Purple by John Akomfrah @ The Curve, The Barbican". Books & Boots. 2017-11-03. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  15. Judah, Hettie (2017-10-06). "Ravishing reminders of what we all stand to lose - Purple, John Akomfrah, Barbican Curve, review". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  16. "John Akomfrah: 'Progress can cause profound suffering'". the Guardian. 2017-10-01. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  17. "John Akomfrah: Purple review | Art in London". Time Out London. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  18. "John Akomfrah: Purple at the Barbican review: An astonishingly ambitious attempt to chart the anthropocene". CityAM. 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
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