Sam Taylor-Wood

Still Lives

17 May 2006 - 3 September 2006

One of the leading artists of her generation, Sam Taylor-Wood is acclaimed for her compelling psychological portraits in photography, film and video. This major BALTIC exhibition presents important new film and photographic works including one of a virtuoso cello performance as well as photographic portraits from her Crying Men series - arresting images of famous actors asked to perform and cry for the camera.

Creating ambiguous orchestrated scenarios that focus on the extremes of human emotion, ranging from desire to anger, and loneliness to boredom, she presents enigmatic situations loaded with latent but explosive energy. Taylor-Wood’s frequent depiction of screen icons poses intriguing questions about identity and performance. This major BALTIC exhibition brings together renowned pieces presented alongside several new works.

Premiering at BALTIC are Prelude in Air and The Last Century. Prelude in Air is a new film work in which the artist filmed a musician playing a piece of music by Bach. The musician appears at one with his instrument during the virtuoso performance, but the cello is simply not there. The Last Century is a 7 minute 12 second long film made inside a smoky pub that appears to stretch time and extend a single moment. Shown alongside these works are Self-Portrait Suspended, a series of self portraits of the artist weightless and suspended in mid-air; the acclaimed work David - a video portrait of footballer David Beckham sleeping; Bram Stoker’s Chair series and the complete series of Crying Men. This series of 27 photographic portraits of international male film stars, who were each asked by the artist to cry for the camera features Tim Roth, Gabriel Byrne, Laurence Fishburne, Woody Harrelson, Michael Gambon, Jude Law, Hayden Christiansen, Ryan Gosling, Robert Downey Jr, Paul Newman, Ed Harris, Benicio Del Toro, Willem Dafoe and Kris Kristofferson.