I-20 is pleased to open Timothy Hutchings’ first solo exhibition in New York, “The Arsenal at Danzig and Other Views.” This video on DVD – which the artist began in early 2001 – depicts what at first glance appears to be a tourist film of 1930s Eastern Europe, with an unremarkable figure who walks among buildings and occasionally waves to the camera. In fact, the buildings
are all landmarks that were destroyed in the world wars, and the animated sequences are based on period photographs. The man in period dress is the artist, who has inserted himself into these scenes like a time traveler. In one view, a pedestrian who was in the original photograph has been brought to life. Combining video and digital animation, Hutchings has reanimated these buildings while allowing small errors of motion to remain – a clue for viewers that the apparent charm of these lost buildings is not exactly what it seems.
The second gallery holds ‘Smialy’ Forward Artillery Car, the artist’s wood and cardboard sculpture of an armored train that traveled under several flags in both world wars. The train has been stripped of all its utilitarian signifiers – doors, rivets, ladders and guns – and has been reduced to an abstract model indicating nothing more than form and volume. Opposite to the video, which shows how landmarks are destroyed by war, the sculpture illustrates how warfare is transformed into a purist esthetic landmark.
Timothy Hutchings group exhibitions include “Greater New York” and “Some Young New Yorkers, Part 2,” at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; “Parking” produced by MayDayProductions; “Keep Fit, Be Happy” at DeChiara Stewart; and “Dissin’ the Real” at Galerie Krinzinger in Vienna. Hutchings was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and educated at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he received a Skowhegan Fellowship. He received his MFA at the Yale University School of the Arts.