Catalogue published to accompany Paul Chan's solo exhibition The 7 Lights at Serpentine Gallery in 2007 and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in 2008. Chan has achieved international acclaim for his drawings, videos and installations that blend a novel drawing aesthetic with philosophical reflections on politics, religion, sex and life today. This exhibition presents the world premiere of the complete series of The 7 Lights (2005–07), large-scale digital projections and drawings that 'hallucinate' the seven days of creation from dawn to dusk. The series explores themes of the sacred and the profane, and temptation and renunciation, in relation to world. The projections are presented on floors, walls and corners, appearing like light and shadows emanating from nearby windows. The 7 Lights compress and animate moving images from the past and the present into the stark fleetingness of shadows as they float in and out of a picture frame that is neither televisual nor cinematic.

The present catalogue features a discussion between the artist, cultural critic and psychoanalyst, Adam Phillips and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Exhibitions & Programmes and Director International Projects, Serpentine Gallery as well as essays by George Baker, Assistant Professor of Art History at UCLA; Massimiliano Gioni, Kraus Family Curator, New Museum, New York and Kitty Scott, Chief Curator, Serpentine Gallery. Also included are Chan's earlier works such as Happiness (Finally) after 35,000 years of Civilization (After Henry Darger and Charles Fourier) (1999-2003), and My birds... Trash... The Future (2004). With artist biography.
Access level

Onsite

Location code
MONL.CHP4
Language

English

Publication/Creation date

2007

ISBN / ISSN

1905190158

No of copies

1

Content type

artist monograph, 

catalogue

Chapter headings

Paul Chan: The Image from Outside - George BAKER

Paul Chan's Basket of Fruit - Kitty SCOTT

All is Fair in Love and War - Massimiliano GIONI

On Light as Midnight and Noon - Paul CHAN, 陳佩之

Paul Chan: The 7 Lights
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Paul Chan: The 7 Lights