Camille Henrot: The Restless Earth

This catalogue coincides with her exhibition at the New Museum which provides a survey of her recent work. Camille Henrot's practice combines anthropological research with a staggering range of cultural fragments reflective of the current digital age. The title, "The Restless Earth," is borrowed from a poem by the Martinican writer Edouard Glissant, known for his novels, peoms and writings on colonialism and diversity. The exhibition will feature four of Henrot's recent videos including Grosse Fatigue, a standout of the recent Venice Biennale, garnering her the Silver Lion as most promising young artist. The work extends on earlier videos like Coupé/Décalé (2010) and Million Dollar Point (2011), which capture rituals and landscapes that move across history and bridge disparate cultures and geographies. "The Restless Earth" also includes several series of works on paper and a new installation of "Is it possible to be a revolutionary and like flowers?" (2012-14). In this series, Henrot translates books from her library into ikebana arrangements, connecting the languages of literature, anthropology, and philosophy with the equally complex language of flowers. Through translation as well as archival research and the creation of hybrid objects-apparent throughout the artist's videos, sculptures, and works on paper-Henrot demonstrates how the classification of artifacts and the production of images structure the way we understand the world.