“Science, Fiction” is the latest show of video artist Diana Thater on view at David Zwirner’s 533 West 19th street space. Thater who is one of the most influential artists working in film, video and installation today, has transformed the Zwirner gallery into a multimedia experience. Drawing on Thater’s larger body of work which explores the interplay between mediated experiences and the natural world, “Science, Fiction” offers a fresh take on this subject matter.

Thater who is no stranger to the art world, earned her BFA in Art History from New York University. She would go onto pursue an M.F.A at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. This is her eighth solo exhibition at Zwirner and her work as also been shown internationally. In the fall of 2015, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be hosting a mid career survey of Thater’s work.

The show consists of two video pieces and an installation which take over the second half of the Zwirner gallery space. As you enter the space, The Starry Messenger and Sidereus Nuncius are shown on two large flat screen video pieces facing one another against opposite walls and give way to Thater’s installation in the larger gallery space. The video work as well as the installation explore tension between the natural and constructed world.

Thater’s installation conjures up elements of sculptor Dan Flavin’s work through her use of light boxes in various colors ranging from blue to green in the installation. The installation uses various lights in different colors throughout the four corners of the gallery. This is reflected in the subject matter of this installation which explores the navigation system of the Dung beetle. Within the center of the white space stands a smaller structure that features four walls standing roughly 6’x4′ high. Projected from the center of the box like structure is a video of dung beetles. The video focuses on the dung beetle and it’s “intricate navigation system which it deploys in disposing balls of animal excrement, it’s main source of nutrition.”

As the press release notes, within recent studies done by scientist the dung beetle is the only known insect which uses the Milky Way to orientate itself at night. In one experiment “the beetles were placed on an outdoor table, they were only able to navigate in their usual straight line with an open view of the nocturnal sky—when their overhead vision was blocked, their movements became erratic and slowed drastically.” The next phase of the experiment was to complete the same action with the beetles but this time in a planetarium. Here the beetle’s access to the Milky Way was turned on and off which resulted in the insects’ path being straighter and faster when they were able to navigate using the planetary system. The footage of the beetle’s navigation becomes abstracted over time. As they move through the soil and animal excrement, the video begins to take on different forms. The different paths that the beetles create become memorizing and at times the insects seem to disappear and reappear at random times.

Within The Starry Messenger and Sidereus Nuncius, Thater shot footage of the Milky Way at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles where she “positioned her camera beneath the Zeiss star projector.” Amidst the cobalt blue of the sky, Thater was able to capture the voyage of a space ship traveling through the Milky Way. Over time the video footage becomes increasingly more abstract given the speed that the space ship is traveling at, light pollution and other factors that make it harder to view. The link between “Science, Fiction” lies in Thater’s broader investigation of the Milky Way and the different forms in takes inside and outside of natural settings. The exhibition is thought provoking, interesting and calls attention to natural occurring phenomenons that are sometimes overlooked.

“Science, Fiction” is on view through February 21, 2015 at David Zwirner’s 519 West 19th Gallery. The Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 6 pm. To learn more about the artist’s work check out her website.

–Anni Irish
@AnniIrish