Silent Film of a Tree Falling in the Forest
Mungo Thompson
Friday, June 5th - Sunday, June 29th, 2009
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Screening is pleased to present Mungo Thomson’s 16mm film loop, Silent Film of a Tree Falling in the Forest. Based in Los Angeles, Thomson is acclaimed for creating work across a variety of media that deftly engages art history, philosophy, pop-culture, science and mysticism in a conceptual play.
Filmed in 2005-6, Silent Film of a Tree Falling in the Forest remolds the classic existential question, pitting the primacy of the visual document against the physical limitations of lived experience and the metaphysical limitations of knowledge and awareness. Characteristically, Thomson tempers this existential dilemma with a wry sense of humor—eschewing cynicism for honest skepticism and genuine curiosity about the ultimate potential of art.
Mungo Thomson was born in 1969 in Woodland, California, and lives in Los Angeles and Berlin. He attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1994, and received an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2000. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles; John Connelly Presents, New York; the Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy. Recent group exhibitions include those at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Vancouver Art Gallery; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Thomson’s work has also been shown in several biennial exhibitions, including the 2008 Whitney Biennial in New York; the 2008 Le Havre Biennale in Le Havre, France; and the 2004 California Biennial at the Orange Country Museum of Art, Newport Beach. Writings on his work have appeared in publications such as Artforum, Frieze, Flash Art, and Uovo.
