Intensity, experimentation and visceral presence are the hallmarks of the 13 significant installations documented in this slipcased two-volume set, which presents the works in SITE Santa Fe's Sixth International Biennial, curated by Klaus Ottmann. Still Points of the Turning World concentrates and amplifies their effect by steering away from the mega-biennial model and toward intimate encounters with individual pieces, away from the filter of a curatorial theme and toward independence for each oeuvre represented. The artists are Miroslaw Balka, Jennifer Bartlett, Patty Chang, Stephen Dean, Peter Doig, Robert Grosvenor, Cristina Iglesias, Wolfgang Laib, Jonathan Meese, Wangechi Mutu, Carsten Nicolai, Catherine Opie and Thorns Ltd. (made up of Snorre Ruch, Finn Olav Holthe and Jon Wesseltoft), and they cover the full spectrum of contemporary art media, photography, installation, painting, performance art, soundscapes, sculpture and video. The majority of the pieces here have been made in the last two years, and four were commissioned expressly for the Biennial.

Still Points of the Turning World: Site Santa Fe's Sixth International Biennial

Arts & Photography

Klaus Ottmann

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

SITE, Santa Fe

Charles Ross’ fascination with light, time and the space of the stars has produced a major earthwork, large-scale prism installations, sculpture, and painting with dynamite. From Star Axis, a vast architectonic earth/star work in the New Mexico desert, to his Solar Burns series made by burning wood-panel monochromes with focused rays of the sun, Ross allows the natural patterns and forces of the cosmos to inform his work. The Substance of Light is a comprehensive volume that covers over four decades of work and features full-color illustrations of his Solar Spectrum artworks, Star Axis, his Solar Burns, Star Maps and Explosion Paintings and Drawings, along with early work and selected architectural commissions. Major essays by Thomas McEvilley and Klaus Ottmann, as well as an extensive interview with Loïc Malle and a range of historical texts are also included.

Charles Ross: The Substance of Light

Thomas McEvilley

Charles Ross

Loïc Malle

History & Criticism

Radius Books

In 1956, James Lee Byars rented a sod farm for a midnight, full moon exhibition of his abstract figure sculptures; guests viewed the work from sleds pulled over snow. In 1959, he abandoned durable materials for paper and fabric. In 1965, a nun performed his A 1,000-Foot Chinese Paper at the Carnegie International. The wondrous story of James Lee Byars begins in 1932 and ends in 1997, and its unique synthesis of Conceptual art, Minimalism, and Fluxus reflects an unending striving for beauty and perfection. The story passes by way of Japan, a place where Byars lived for many years, and where he combined the formal and symbolic aspects of Noh theater and Shinto rituals with elements of Western science, art, and philosophy, developing an appreciation for the transient, ceremonial character of performance as an essential quality of his art. Over his lifetime, he was known for works characterized by an extreme simplicity of form and material that simultaneously appeared astonishingly luxurious. Life, Love, and Death presents a critical review of Byars' oeuvre and traces his development as an artist from his formative period in Japan to his later years in New York--ranging from his performances and works on paper and fabric devoted to the theme of life, to his splendid late sculptures in gold, marble, and velvet which deal with death as the embodiment of perfection.

Life, Love, and Death: The Work of James Lee Byars

Viola Michely

Martina Weinhart

Individual Artists

Hatje Cantz Publishers

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Books by Klaus Ottmann