Currents 113: Shimon Attie Lost in Space (After Huck)

Artist Shimon Attie creates site-specific, multimedia works that shine a light on what has been lost, buried, or forgotten. His installations incorporate a range of new media techniques, including projections, photography, and video, to expose the layers of history that construct our world.

In Currents 113: Lost in Space (After Huck), Attie draws inspiration from Saint Louis' location on the Mississippi River. He has created an immersive multimedia environment that echoes one of the river's most iconic stories: the journey of Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi on a raft as told in Mark Twain's 1884 novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the center of the room, a sculpture of a raft sits surrounded by projections of clusters of light, giving the impression that the raft is floating in a celestial space. 

Objects on the raft, a corn-cob pipe, knife, bindle bag, and three sticks secured at the top, evoke a bygone era. A more contemporary police light, glowing red, is also placed on the raft. Overlapping real and imaginary worlds, Attie's installation creates a symbolic space where meanings from the past can be examined alongside important socio-political issues of the present. 

Attie is the recipient of the 2016-2017 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Fellowship, which includes a residency at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and an exhibition in the Currents series, the Museum's long-running program showcasing contemporary art. Attie's video, The Crossing, will be on view concurrently as part of the Museum's New Media Series in Gallery 301.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website