Eve Sussman | Rufus Corporation: whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir

Cristin Tierney is pleased to present the New York premiere of whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir, a film by Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation, opening Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 6:00 pm. The exhibition will also include a photo series by Simon Lee created during the production, When the future throws a shadow over the land.

whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir follows the observations and surveillance of geophysicist code writer, Mr. Holz, stuck in a retro-futuristic metropolis named City-A. Voiceovers and dialogues in English and Russian (with English subtitles) evoke the remains of Cold War era social controls-wire tapped telephone conversations, reel-to-reel tapes, snippets of a job interview between Holz and his employer and a mysterious woman referred to simply as "Dispatch." A narrator describes various impositions on the citizens, including strangely manipulated time keeping, a language ration, and the effects of lithium, suggesting that there is no clear way to tell the future from the past.

The continuously evolving narrative is generated by a custom-programmed serendipity machine, loaded with 3,000 clips, 80 voice-overs and 150 pieces of music. Edited in real time, the film has no beginning, middle or end, formulating an endless story that is never told the same way twice. The viewer's mind works ceaselessly to re-order and connect these disparate elements, struggling against the film's subversion of spatial and temporal boundaries.

Inspired by Suprematist quests for transcendence and pure space, whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir, was created with a small crew, one American actor named Jeff Wood, and local actors hired en route. Filmed over two years, the artists journeyed throughout Central Asia before finally landing on the banks of the Caspian Sea. The film will be presented in a theater-like installation in the front gallery. On view in the gallery's back room will be a related three-screen work, Wintergarden by Eve Sussman and Simon Lee as well as photographs from Yuri's Office that Sussman shot with Monia Lippi.

Eve Sussman founded the Rufus Corporation in 2003. The company has collaborated on 89 Seconds at Alcázar (2004), the experimental feature The Rape of the Sabine Women (2007), and the installation Yuri's Office (2009). Rufus Corporation's works have been exhibited and screened internationally and are included in the collections of the MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Margulies Collection, Sisita Soldevila/Amister Collection, Fundación La Caixa and Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea. Eve Sussman is a 2010 recipient of the Anonymous was a Woman Award.

Co-production support for whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir has been provided by Creative Capital, The Richard J. Massey Foundation, Sisita Soldevila/Amister Collection, Fundación "La Caixa," and Cristin Tierney and Jim Shapiro. Additional support has been provided by CEC ArtsLink, The Trust for Mutual Understanding and New York Foundation for the Arts and Adam Audio.

An online excerpt of whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir was commissioned by Triple Canopy's Internet as Material project. Rufus Corporation worked with Joshua Noble to write an internet capable version of Jeff Garneau's original algorithm. A live edit preview of six excerpted episodes of whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir can be seen at: http://canopycanopycanopy.com/10/whiteonwhite.