PLAYTIME

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is pleased to present Isaac Julien’s ambitious new film installation, PLAYTIME. Julien’s film explores the relationship between capital, the art world and the individual. Presented in three parts, PLAYTIME is set across three cities defined by their relationship to capital: London, a city transformed by the deregulation of banks; Reykjavik, where the 2008 crisis began; and Dubai, one of the Middle East’s burgeoning financial markets.

The narrative follows six characters: the Artist, the Hedge Fund Manager, the Auctioneer, the House Worker, the Art Dealer, and the Reporter, exploring how each is affected by capital and the global financial crisis. The characters are based on real individuals whom Julien interviewed and researched extensively. PLAYTIME features performances from highly acclaimed actors, including James Franco, Maggie Cheung, Mercedes Cabral, Colin Salmon and Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, along with world-famous auctioneer Simon de Pury, as himself.

What drives people to cross continents in search of a “better life” is a question that has underpinned much of Julien’s work over the past decade, and, in responding to the question, he repeatedly returns to the same answer: capital. PLAYTIME thus follows on from Julien’s acclaimed nine screen installation TEN THOUSAND WAVES (2010) – recently exhibited in the atrium at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Alongside PLAYTIME, Isaac Julien will present KAPITAL, a two-screen video artwork depicting the artist in conversation with curators, critics and theorists including David Harvey, author “The Enigma of Capital”.  KAPITAL montages archive footage from silent film, video art, contemporary art performances and Hollywood film with kinetic tracking shots of talks and audience interventions at ‘Choreographing Capital’ at the Hayward Gallery. A suite of six large-scale photographic works will complete the exhibition together. 

BIOGRAPHY

Isaac Julien is a British artist and filmmaker (b. 1960) whose work incorporates different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting them to create a unique poetic visual language in audio visual film installations. His 1991 film Young Soul Rebels won the Semaine de la Critique prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Julien was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001 for his works The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999) and Vagabondia (2000), and has received wide acclaim for works including Western Union: small boats) (2007), Fantôme Afrique (2005), True North (2004), Baltimore (2003) and Paradise Omeros (2002). In 2008 Julien collaborated with Tilda Swinton on a biopic about Derek Jarman which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival the same year. In recent years, Julien has had solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (2013), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2012), Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo (2012), Bass Museum, Miami, Florida (2010), Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2009), Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea - Museu do Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal (2008) Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2006), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2005), and MoCA, North Miami (2005). His 2010 installation TEN THOUSAND WAVES has been on display in over fifteen international cities so far, including Shanghai, Sydney, Madrid, Helsinki, São Paolo, Gwangju, Moscow, Miami and London

Isaac Julien’s immersive 9 screen film installation TEN THOUSAND WAVES premiered at the Biennale of Sydney in 2010 and was recently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In association with this exhibition, MoMA New York published RIOT, an intellectual biography of Isaac Julien, looking at key moments in his career and discussing the influences that shaped them, with contributions from critics and curators such as Christine Van Assche and Mark Nash. RIOT will be available during Isaac Julien’s exhibition.

Julien is represented in museum and private collections throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate, the UK Government Art Collection, Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and the Brandhorst Museum.

PLAYTIME will be Isaac Julien’s fourth exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.

Isaac Julien’s film, PLAYTIME will be screening at the following times during gallery opening hours until April 12:

10.00 am

11.07 am

12.14 pm

1.21 pm

2.28 pm

3.35 pm

4.42 pm