Whitney Museum

This first solo museum exhibition by artist, dancer, and choreographer Madeline Hollander (b. 1986) features a new video installation, Flatwing, and related works on paper. Hollander’s work is inspired by the everyday movement patterns that she observes in our social, urban, technological, and natural environments, which she transforms into site-specific installations and performances.

Flatwing (2019), Hollander's first video installation, explores the emergence of silent crickets in Kauai, Hawaii, and the imminent extinction of their chirping rivals due to rising global temperatures. The film guides the viewer through Hollander's expedition through Kauai's cacophonous rainforest nightscape, and her futile attempt to record the movements of this elusive new species. Ventriloquizing their fellow cricket's mating chirp by silently rubbing their wings together, the trickery of the mute crickets’ movements perform a choreography of survival. The video installation is accompanied by a display of drawings, diagrams, and research materials created by the artist in the process of making the film.

Madeline Hollander: Flatwing is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, with Clémence White, senior curatorial assistant.