First Monographic Exhibition by Quintan Ana Wikswo Opens in New York City

Aug. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- New York, NY (August 4, 2011) – In her first monographic exhibition and east coast debut, internationally acclaimed visual artist and writer, Quintan Ana Wikswo, introduces her dreamlike and haunting large-scale, multi-panel photographs, poetry, video installations and interactive assemblages in Prophecy of Place at Yeshiva University Museum (YU Museum) from August 14, 2011 - January 22, 2012.
Wikswo uses damaged and salvaged antique military cameras and battlefield typewriters to explore the startling ecological beauty that obscures “traumatized” sites of crimes against humanity, and to uncover the intergenerational legacies surrounding them. These fiercely mysterious images and starkly graceful prose poems create a powerful encounter with violence and beauty revealed through a fractured, unsettling lens.
Created between 2008-2011 in Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Finland and Russia, Prophecy of Place presents kaleidoscopic portraits of the astonishing and often invisible histories hidden at the heart of communities where Jews encountered exile, shelter and trauma.
Traversing 10 centuries, eight countries and five languages, the exhibition is a deeply immersive engagement with the legacy of Jewish survival and the struggle with other cultures through luminous, prismatic, multi-part contemporary photographs of villages, cities, shtetls and camps – sites where Jews have faced devastating attacks or attempts at cultural annihilation.
The works reverberate with contrasting abstractions of man-made, natural and ephemeral elements that reveal medieval cities, ancient forests or fields of wildflowers where thousands of people were persecuted or killed: the fields outside Strasbourg where mobs burned Jews accused of spreading plague; the Inquisition Plaza in the Jewish ghetto of Lisbon; the unmarked site of the Forced-Sex Brothel at Dachau; mass execution sites in the forests of Lithuania; and the disquietingly tranquil facades of Nazi medical facilities in Berlin.    
“As historian and artist, I’m intrigued by human and ecological echoes at places fractured by trauma and political violence–sites of communal catastrophe that bear often invisible records of deep traumatic emotion. I look for points of intimacy and tenderness in these places on the earth that seem to utterly deny safety and comfort,” said Wikswo. “In locations with particularly painful histories, a certain resurrection of luminosity and beauty seems to me both absurd and essential.”
Included within Prophecy of Place are more than 35 large-format, multi-panel photographs; 10 video installations integrating poetic text, field recordings, and original music by prominent collaborating composers; and an interactive assemblage of artifacts and talismans. Visitors will have the opportunity to use a typewriter to leave notes, poems and prayers beneath polished black rocks on the table overlaid with a shifting projection of the artist’s poetry.
“Quintan Ana Wikswo is a gifted and original artist who creates stunningly beautiful and moving imagery of places with horrifically ugly provenance and background,” added Dr. Jacob Wisse, director of YU Museum. “The tension within her work reflects back movingly on recent and not-so-recent Jewish history, playing an important role of memorialization while also suggesting the possibility of a more hopeful and humane future. I think visitors to the exhibition will be struck and touched by the beauty and power of Wikswo’s work.”                                                     

PUBLIC PROGRAMS
September 12, 2011: 6:30–8:30 pm  Echoes of Experience– Performance Works from Prophecy of Place: Quintan Ana Wikswo  Featuring Wikswo's photographic, text and video installation works for live performance. With music by composers Veronika Krausas and Isaac Schankler performed by Andrew Tholl, Nadia Francavilla and Andrew Miller, and movement pieces by choreographer Alexandra Shilling and her dancers.  Followed by a conversation between the artist and Joanne Jacobson, Professor of English, Yeshiva University.  
September 18, 2011: 2 pm Artist’s Tour: Prophecy of Place: Quintan Ana Wikswo  January 12, 2012: 6–8 pm Poetics of Place – Readings with Drunken Boat, Tin House and Conjunctions Featuring readings by Wikswo and other prominent fiction and poetry authors from renowned New York literary magazines such as Drunken Boat, Tin House and Conjunctions.  ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE Wikswo will be resident artist at Yeshiva University’s Yeshiva College and with the Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women Honors Program for two weeks during the exhibition.  Location:
Yeshiva University Museum
15 W. 16th Street New York, New York  10011
212.294.8330 yumuseum.org

Hours:
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday: 11 am–5 pm; Monday: 5 pm–8 pm (FREE); Wednesday: 11 am–8 pm (FREE  
5 pm–8 pm); Friday: 11 am–2:30 pm (FREE)  Admission:
Adults: $8; Seniors and Students: $6; Members and Children under 5: Free; Yeshiva University Faculty, Administration and Students: Free (with valid ID)

For more information about Prophecy of Place or to request an interview with the artist or a guided tour, contact Valerie Peters at vlpcommunications@gmail.com or 917.328.6787. Additional sample images and films are available at yumuseum.tumblr.com/Wikswo
 Images and credits for publication are included in this packet.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Quintan Ana Wikswo is an interdisciplinary artist whose projects appear in museums, galleries, publications and performance spaces throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. A regular contributor to Kenyon Review, Tin House, WITNESS, Conjunctions, Gulf Coast and other distinguished magazines, she is the author of three artist’s books, including Schwarzer Tod and the Useless Eaters, and two DVD collections of video-poetics installations. Her work is supported by grants, fellowships and residencies from prominent institutions including the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Center for Cultural Innovation and Durfee Foundation. Her studio is located in Los Angeles.  

ABOUT YESHIVA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM
For more than 35 years, the Yeshiva University Museum has provided culturally diverse exhibitions and programming for the greater metropolitan area and beyond, as well as Yeshiva University students, faculty, and alumni. Its permanent collection includes more than 9,000 objects spanning over 3,000 years of Jewish history. The Museum also emphasizes teaching schoolchildren and adults of diverse backgrounds about Jewish culture through many varieties of interdisciplinary programs. Located at the Center for Jewish History, the Museum occupies four spacious galleries, a children's workshop center, and an outdoor sculpture garden.