April 6—May 11, 2013
Puppets, Pawns, and Prophets features recent and new work by Marcel Dzama, including three videos inspired by the game of chess, as well as puppets and masks based on the characters, drawings, collages, dioramas, and sculptural works. Dzama has become known for his prolific drawings, which are characterized by their distinctive palette of muted browns, grays, greens, and reds. In recent years, the artist has expanded his practice to encompass three-dimensional work and film and has developed an immediately recognizable language that draws from a diverse range of references and artistic influences.
Death Disco Dance is a four-minute video loop featuring characters based on chess pieces. It was filmed in Guadalajara, Mexico, in conjunction with Dzama’s A Game of Chess (which debuted at David Zwirner, New York, in 2011). In lieu of the latter’s narrative of fatal interchanges and power reversals, Dzama shows the ballet-dancing actors in a synchronized, but almost entirely improvised, dance, that was planned and choreographed on the spot. The artist himself created the disco-like soundtrack using a small drum machine. The loop will be displayed on several monitors in the gallery’s street-facing window.
For more info please visit David Zwirner