Anna Wittenberg: The Ruminant
California Museum of Photography
August 21, 2021 - February 6, 2022
Fall Opening Reception | Saturday, October 16, 2021, 5pm - 9pm |
The Ruminant is a sculptural installation with an accompanying single channel video projection. The floor-bound sculpture, organized by a steel vertebrae, references Mammalia. The feet, discrete objects of unto themselves, incorporate various elements including a tree trunk, parts of discarded chairs and a recycled plastic bottle among other disparate materials. The feet function like cud, fashioned out of reclaimed fragments and modern detritus that have been chewed up, melted, and otherwise metabolized. The video projected on the adjacent wall features highly rendered and staccato footage of parts of farm animal's bodies, privileging encounters with the rectangular irises of ungulate eyes intercut with cropped shots of llama hooves, horses’ teeth, and the like.
Anna Wittenberg is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her MFA from the University of California, Riverside in 2017 following her BA in Media Studies from Pitzer College. Wittenberg works primarily in video, sculpture, and drawing. Her work engages junk, myth, the body and tropes of film production and cinematic structures. Her installations employ video and sound to alternately alienate and seduce, in an effort to interrogate contemporary and historical mores.
Image: Anna Wittenberg, The Ruminant, 2021 (film still). Courtesy of the artist.
