The Nightwatch
2004 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
17 min
Francis Alÿs
The Nightwatch , which is an ironic reference to the celebrated painting by Rembrandt, follows the course of a fox wandering among the celebrated collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London. The path of the fox, from galleries containing 16th, 17th and 18th century portraits of historic figures from British history hung on plush walls, is circuitous and seemingly random. The fox tracks back and forth, sometimes inspecting the gallery furniture, often walking through the middle of the room but sometimes around its perimeter until eventually it climbs on top of a showcase, covered in fabric where he settles down to sleep. The actions of the fox are observed from the close-circuit television cameras which form part of the museum’s security system. Foxes are now commonly found in London roaming the suburban streets at night-time. They are in a sense flaneurs sauvages. The insertion of a fox in such an august institution is at once bizarre and yet in some sense perfectly normal. There is a constant tension in the film: will the fox do some damage, what attracts him to particualr places that he returns to; how does he decide where he will settle. The fox acculturises to the gallery in the same way he has become acclimatised to the city. The fox is an outsider, an interloper banned from the city that has re-inserted itself. Alys draws a parallel between the fox and himself. ‘No matter how long I have been away, I have one foot in a European culture, and one foot out… A lot of my work has played on the double status’. The theme of surveillance is multi-layered. On the one hand the fox is staking out the gallery; the portraits on the wall appear to be watching him; the security cameras are monitoring both the paintings and the fox and finally, we the viewer are observing the whole action.
Trained as an architect, Alÿs turned to a visual arts based practice in the early 1990s as a more immediate, direct, and effective way of exploring issues related to urbanization, to the ordering and signification of urban space and to the semiotics of its use. His work initiates with a simple action, either by him or others, which is then documented in a range of media. Alÿs explores subjects such as modernizing programs in Latin America and border zones in areas of conflict, often asking about the relevance of poetic acts in politicized situations. Documentation is central to his practice as well as painting, drawing, and video. In his work, When Faith Moves Mountains (2002) made in collaboration with Mexican critic Cuauhtemoc Medina, Alÿs recruited 500 volunteers outside of Lima, Peru. Each person moved a shovel full of sand one step at a time form one side of a dune to the other, and together they moved the entire geographical location of the dune by a few inches. Critic Jean Fisher linked Alÿs’ work to the radical event of precipitating a crisis of meaning, where the exposure of a void of meaning is confronted by its social situation, leading up to some kind of truth. Francis Alÿs was born in Belgium in 1959. He lives and works in Mexico City.
Colors:
Related works of genres: » conceptual art, » mexican contemporary artists, » contemporary artist, » conceptual artist, » born 1959
» see more
© » KADIST
John Baldessari
1997In One Must , an image of a pair of scissors, accompanied by the words of work’s title, poses an ominous question about the relationship between the image and the text...
© » KADIST
Gabriel Orozco
2002Gabriel Orozco comments: “In the exhibition [Documenta 11, Kassel, 2002], I tried to connect with the photographs I took in Mali in July...
Related works featuring themes of: » Belgium, » Color Photography, » Contemporary Conceptualism, » Contemporary Participation, » Conceptual Art, » Belgian
» see more
© » KADIST
Félix González-Torres
1992Behind the simplicity and beauty of this untitled photograph of a brilliantly-colored flowerbed by Félix González-Torres are two remarkable stories of love, loss, and resilience...
© » KADIST
Allan McCollum
1982In the work titled The Glossies (1980), an affinity for photography manifested itself before McCollum actually began to use photography as a medium...
© » KADIST
Heman Chong
2009With a habit of reading eight to ten books at the same time, Chong paints his two-foot tall novel covers through referencing an extensive reading list (accessible on Facebook) he has kept since 2006...
© » KADIST
John Baldessari
1991The voids in Baldessari’s painted photographs are simultaneously positive and negative spaces, both additive and subtractive...
Other related works, blended automatically
» see more
© » KADIST
Félix González-Torres
1992Behind the simplicity and beauty of this untitled photograph of a brilliantly-colored flowerbed by Félix González-Torres are two remarkable stories of love, loss, and resilience...
© » KADIST
Allan McCollum
1982In the work titled The Glossies (1980), an affinity for photography manifested itself before McCollum actually began to use photography as a medium...
© » KADIST
Yee I-Lann
20207-headed Lalandau Hat by Yee I-Lann is an intricately woven sculpture evoking the ceremonial headdress worn by Murut men in Borneo...
Related works sharing similar palette
» see more
© » LENS CULTURE
In Pieces - Photographs by Sophia Bulgakova, Lia Dostlieva, Ola Lanko, Katia Motyleva and Kateryna Snizhko | Book review by Sophie Wright | LensCulture Feature In Pieces In this imaginative collection of photobooks “made with a child in mind,” five artists of Ukrainian descent explore the everyday heroism of life in wartime...
© » KADIST
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
2017Produced for the Prix Marcel Duchamp and presented at the Centre Pompidou in October 2017, the installation Uncomformities is comprised of photographs, archaeological drawings, and narratives, based on the analysis of core samples from different sites in Beirut, Paris and Athens...
Related works from the » 2000's created around » Mexico City, Mexico
» see more
© » KADIST
Minerva Cuevas
2006During her research on primitive currencies and cultural cannibalism, Cuevas came across the Donald Duck comic book issue “The Stone Money Mystery,” where Donald goes on a quest to find missing museum objects...
© » KADIST
Mario Garcia Torres
2005Mario Garcia Torres films a game of Charades among professional actors guessing the former North Korean dictator’s favorite Hollywood films...
© » KADIST
Abraham Cruzvillegas
2004Wright Imperial Hotel (2004) is a sort of bow and arrow made out of feathers, a São Paulo phone book, and other materials...
Other works by: » Francis Alÿs
» see more
© » KADIST
Francis Alÿs
2006This series of small drawings is executed with varying materials—pen, ink, colored pencil, charcoal, and masking tape—on architect’s tracing paper...
Related artist(s) to: Francis Alÿs » Bruce Nauman, » Gabriel Orozco, » Jimmie Durham, » Rivane Neuenschwander, » Lygia Clark, » Ana Mendieta, » Louise Lawler, » Thomas Hirschhorn, » Wilfredo Prieto, » Abraham Cruzvillegas
» see more
© » KADIST
Gabriel Orozco
1992Gabriel Orozco often documents found situations in the natural or urban landscape...
© » KADIST
Gabriel Orozco
2002Gabriel Orozco comments: “In the exhibition [Documenta 11, Kassel, 2002], I tried to connect with the photographs I took in Mali in July...
Related works found in the same semantic group
» see more
© » MODERN MET PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographer Endures Icy Temps to Photograph Arctic Animals Home / Photography / Wildlife Photography Photographer Endures Icy Temperatures to Photograph Beautiful Arctic Animals By Jessica Stewart on February 7, 2024 Photographer Konsta Punkka was just a teenager when he transformed his passion into a full-time career...
© » EYE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
© 2023 All rights reserved - The Eye of Photography Solomon, Rosalind Fox, Getting Ready for the Dance, Scottsboro, Alabama 1976 Solomon, Rosalind Fox, First Mondays, Scottsboro, Alabama 1976 Solomon, Rosalind Fox, First Mondays, Sco ttsboro, A labama page 1 of 1 1972-1973 Solomon, Rosalind Fox, First Mondays, S cottsboro, Alabama 1975 Solomon, Rosalind Fox, First Mondays, Scottsboro, Alabama 1975 The MUUS Collection is thrilled to present a solo exhibition of works by the American artist Rosalind Fox Solomon at Paris Photo 2022...
© » ROYAL ACADEMY
Video: two-minute tour of the Summer Exhibition 2023 | Blog | Royal Academy of Arts Installation view of the Summer Exhibition 2023 at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 13 June – 20 August 2023 Photo: © David Parry/ Royal Academy of Arts Video: two-minute tour of the Summer Exhibition 2023 Read more Become a Friend Video: two-minute tour of the Summer Exhibition 2023 Published 24 July 2023 Take a quick trip through more than 1,600 works on display in this year’s show...