Steve McQueen
Further images
of the projection, is not on the artist, but on the negative space above his head. The monumental screen is filled with an empty, marbled sky, while the artist’s head bobs at the bottom edge of the frame, sometimes dipping out of it altogether.
Metaphorically, the work suggests notions of marginality and exclusion; indeed, colloquially, the title phrase refers to things one cannot understand. Similarly, the principal narrative act of the film all but eliminates the protagonist from the position of centrality. The film makes the viewer struggle, as the camera struggles, to locate an elusive subject.
Exhibitions
Steve McQueen: Works, Schaulager Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 1 March – 7 July 2013
Steve McQueen: Works, The Art Institute of Chicago, Regenstein Hall, Chicago IL, 21 October 2012 – 6 January 2013
We Go Round in Circles at Night, Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart, Rochechouart, France, 1 March – 15 June 2009
Steve McQueen. Caribs’ Leap/Western Deep, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain, 5 December 2003 - 16 February 2004
Video Acts. Single Channel Works from the Collections of Pamela and Richard Kramlich and New Art Trust, Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York NY, 10 November 2002 – 1 April 2003
Steve McQueen, Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela, 17 September – 26 October 2000; [travelled to: Institute for Contemporary Art, Cape Town, South Africa, 16 November – 17 December 2000; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, 26 April – 17 June 2001; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico, 21 June – 19 August 2001]
Steve McQueen, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland, 12 June – 15 August 1999
Steve
McQueen, Institute
of Contemporary Art, London, England, 30 January - 21 March 1999
Steve McQueen. Four Projected Images, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco CA, 27 February – 12 May 1998
Wounds. Between Democracy and Redemption in Contemporary Art, Moderna Museet, Stockholm 14 February – 19 April 1998
Steve McQueen. Projects 62, The Project Room, The Museum of Modern Art, New York NY, 25 November 1997 – 10 February 1998
La Collection, Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart, Rochechouart, France, 11 July – 28 December 1997
Steve McQueen, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York NY, 22 May – 28 June 1997
Steve McQueen, ‘Five Easy Pieces’ & ‘Just Above My Head’, Video Installations, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 26 April – 15 June 1997
Steve McQueen, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, 12 April – 8 June 1997
Steve McQueen. Just Above My Head, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, England, 12 – 17 November 1996
Life/live. La scène artistique au Royaume-Uni en 1996 de Nouvelles aventures, ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France, 5 October 1996 – 5 January 1997; [travelled to: Centro Cultural de Belém (now Museu Berardo), Lisbon, Portugal, 23 January – 21 April 1997]
Collections
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York NY
Partial gift of Kramlich collection to the New Art Trust to benefit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco CA, Museum of Modern Art, New York NY and Tate Collection, England
Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart, France
Literature
I want the screen to be a massive mirror, Basel: Schaulager Basel, Steudler Press, 2013 pp. 25, 32 ill.
Steve McQueen: Works, Chicago: Art
Institute of Chicago; Basel: Schaulager Basel; Berlin: Kehrer, 2012 pp. 72-73
ill.
History in the Making. A Retrospective of the Turner Prize, Tokyo: Mori Art Museum, 2008 pp. 102
Heynen, Julian, eds., Collection k21 Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf: K21;
Cologne: DuMont, 2005
Dennison, Lisa, Nancy Spector and Joan Young, eds., Moving Pictures: Contemporary Photography and Video from the Guggenheim Museum Collections, New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2003, p. 23 ill.
Video Acts. Single Channel Works from the Collections of Pamela and Richard Kramlich and New Art Trust, New York: Museum of Modern Art PS1, 2002
Kystof, Doris, ed., Steve McQueen, texts by Gerald Matt, Doris Kystof, Thomas Miessgang and Ilka Becker, Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 2001 p. 48 ill.
Steve McQueen, Caracas: Sala Mendoza; Cape Town: Institute for Contemporary Art; São Paulo: Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, 2000 (n.p)
Van Noord, Gerrie, ed., Steve McQueen, texts by Robert Storr, Michael Newman and Okwui Enwezor, London: ICA; Zurich: Kunsthalle Zürich, 1999 p. 19 ill.
Wounds: Between Democracy and Redemption in Contemporary Art, Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 1998
Thompson, Jon, ed., Steve McQueen, Frankfurt am Main: Portikus; Eindhoven: Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, 1997
London, Barbara, ed., Projects 62: Steve McQueen, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1997
Pagé, Suzanne, Laurence Bossé and Hans Ulrich Obrist, eds., Life/live: la scène artistique au Royaume-Uni en 1996 de Nouvelles aventures, Paris: Parise-Musées, 1996