Vital Signs: New Media from the Permanent Collection

  • Bill Viola

    Memoria, 2000

    DVD, DVD player, projector, and silk

    Dimensions variable

    Museum purchase with funds contributed by Ann Marie and Averill Mix and from the Lipman Family Foundation

  • Gail Wight

    Center of Gravity, 2008

    15 digital pigment prints on kozo washi paper, Plexiglas, light, electronics, motion sensor, sound

    96 x 5 x 5 inches (individual works)

    Installation dimensions variable 

    San Jose Museum of Art

    Gift of the Lipman Family Foundation and Ron Casentini

  • Andrea Ackerman

    Rose Breathing, 2003

    3D Computer animation, stereo sound, projector. 34-second continuous loop

    Dimensions variable

    Museum purchase with funds contributed by the Museum’s Collection Committee

     

  • Jim Campbell

    Photograph of My Mother, 1996

    And

    Portrait of my Father, 1994-95

    Custom electronics, glass, plastic, and photography

    San Jose Museum of Art

    Museum purchase with funds contributed by the Museum’s Collection Committee 

The patterns of nature find reflection in the functions of human life—the motion of ocean waves echoes the measured inhalation and exhalation of breath; flower petals reach for the sun, unfurling and then collapsing, more slowly but similarly to the way a heart contracts and expands. These rhythms and movements connect the diversity of earth’s life forms, highlight their fragility, and can serve literally as a method for monitoring human and environmental health. The new media artists in this exhibition use technology to replicate these vital signs, but also to explore the inner source of life, those elements unseen but often sensed. 

Artists include

Andrea Ackerman, Jim Campbell, Bill Viola, and Gail Wight.    

Sponsors

  • Doris and Alan Burgess and Peter Lipman