Elliott Hundley: The Bacchae

Elliott Hundley (born 1975) conceives of his exhibitions as theatrical environments--dense narrative landscapes populated by actors. By interspersing his monumental collages with carefully placed sculptural groupings, Hundley creates immersive environments that restage and animate the classical texts that are his sources. These epic installations collapse historical and narrative time, placing equal emphasis on classical mythology, art history and the socio-political conditions of the present. Published for one of Hundley's most significant museum exhibitions to date, this catalogue is the first sustained treatment of the artist's work. Building on Hundley's previous investigations of Euripides' tragedy The Bacchae, it examines the artist's effort to elaborate a critical relationship between classical literary sources and contemporary society. Essays by Christopher Bedford, poet Anne Carson and art historian Richard Meyer explicate the many facets of Hundley's sources and processes.