Trisha Donnelly

Using video, sound, photographs, drawings, and performance, Trisha Donnelly explores the power of the human mind to will ideas into existence. At the same time, her work acknowledges the limits of language in any guise to fully contain our ideas and thoughts. In Night Is Coming the title words pulse in and out of view. Reminding us of the passing of time, the message is open and allusive, tapping into our own assumptions and circumstances. Do we fear or welcome the night? When will it come? Does "night" really mean the night at all or any number of symbolic connotations? The associations are as varied as viewers' myriad referents. Donnelly harnesses our imaginations with the lightest possible touch; her interventions are sometimes barely visible but just enough to "slip into the back of people's minds." Her works can be experienced in other parts of the exhibition, where they encourage us to construct our own storylines and contexts: the sound of Dark Wind rushes through the Scaife Galleries, and her untitled photographs, flanking gallery doors, create a heraldic entrance. A fourth work, Letter to Tacitus, is a five-minute performance presented at noon, Tuesday through Friday and on selected weekends.

Selected Bibliography:

Higgs, Matthew. "Trisha Donnelly." In Ralph Rugoff, ed. Baja to Vancouver: The West Coast in Contemporary Art. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2004.

Hoffman, Jens. "Trisha Donnelly." Flash Art 34, no. 223 (March–April 2002): 97.

Miller, John. "Openings: Trisha Donnelly." Artforum 50, no. 10 (Summer 2002): 164–65.

Spectacular—The Art of Action. Exhibition catalogue. Düsseldorf: Museum Kunst Palast, 2003.

Spector, Nancy. "Trisha Donnelly." In Cream 3. London: Phaidon Press, 2003: 120–23.

Links:

ArtForum

Guggenheim Museum