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Jump to full article: New York Times, 2008-04-26
Author: ROBERTA SMITH
Intro: Few things say serious art like a darkened gallery and multiple video screens, which makes Marian Goodman one of the most serious galleries in town. In side-by-side solo shows through Wednesday, it is screening new work by two prominent artists in the cinematic medium, Chantal Akerman and Eija-Liisa Ahtila. . . .
Ms. Akerman bites off less and chews it more thoroughly. If anything, she is underreaching with “Women From Antwerp in November, 2007,” which appears on a band of five relatively small screens. Each shows one woman — occasionally, two or three — smoking. At times they are in a bar, but more often they are outside, at night.
They walk along sidewalks, hang out on street corners, sit reading in parks, struggle with matches in the rain, weave home drunkenly, pass out or doze off. Smoke swirls. There are moments of tears and laughter. Best scene: in a bar one woman takes a cigarette from the mouth of another, uses it to light her own and puts it back.
That everyone is trim, great-looking and exceptionally stylish makes “Women of Antwerp” seem like a compilation of smoking moments from other movies; practice shots by a fashion photographer who wants to direct; or overproduced, Europeanized film versions of Cindy Sherman’s early work. . . .
Video art by Chantal Akerman and Eija Liisa Ahtila is on view through Wednesday at Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, Manhattan; (212) 977-7160.
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