Incidents

Svetlana Kopystiansky|Igor Kopystiansky|Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky

1996–97 · Single-channel digital video, color, sound, 14 min., 49 sec. · Photographs

In this video, the husband-and-wife team of Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky follow all manner of discarded items—cups, cartons, bags, newspapers, broken umbrellas, a pipe, unspooled audiotape—as they are blown around by the wind on the street. The results are balletic, whimsical, and even filled with pathos. Each piece of trash becomes anthropomorphized, so that when two bags or wrappers collide, are intertwined, and separate, the viewer cannot help but project a human drama onto the proceedings. Incidents is filled with such incidents, and part of the pleasure of the piece is seeing how the artists pile on example after example and yet are able to imbue each found object with an irreducible individuality and silent poetry.

Artist

Svetlana Kopystiansky|Igor Kopystiansky|Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky

Date

1996–97

Medium

Single-channel digital video, color, sound, 14 min., 49 sec.

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Anonymous Gift, 2010