T.J. Wilcox

In the Air, an incredible view of New York from far up and all around, is a critically celebrated ode to the city from artist T.J. Wilcox (born 1965). The fascinating view from his 18th-floor studio on Union Square initially distracted Wilcox from his work, but ultimately inspired him to create this dazzling display. Using 60,000 individual photographs, one shot every second by four cameras over a period of 15 hours, the artist assembled a half-hour long "film in the round." Projected onto a circular screen, the film completely surrounds the viewer. Superimposed on this 360-degree panorama are six vignettes, featuring a variety of New Yorkers from all walks of life. One, for example, focuses on Antonio Lopez, the fashion designer who lost his life to AIDS and who was an inspiration to the teenaged Wilcox; another features Andy Warhol; a third follows "John," the super of the studio's building, who describes witnessing 9/11.

This comprehensive monograph illuminates Wilcox's work in collaged movie and television footage and handmade animation--mythical romantic mini-narratives--with essays from Johanna Burton and New Yorker critic Hilton Als. Wilcox shoots in Super 8, both original footage and preexisting film from a video monitor, transfers his work to video for editing, and then to 16 millimeter for presentation. When it is shown, the sound of the projector dominates the gallery space, while the silence of the film itself indexes the impossibility of hearing the silent voices. There is no illusion of transparency, of believing one might share any kind of simple present with the characters on the screen. Instead, the transfers between formats give the collected imagery a sort of patina, suggesting not only temporal distance--the weight of history--but also a shift in the equilibrium of the senses. As seen at The Museum of Modern Art and the 2004 Whitney Biennial in New York.