Blitz

Emerging in the 1990s as a pioneer of film and video art, Diana Thater constructs installations that examine the complexities of the experience of the moving image. Her work presents a radically altered vision of nature—as both open to multiple subjectivities and completely permeated and mediated by technology and culture. At the same time, Thater’s inventive approach undermines the seamless, passive essence of mainstream video by emphasizing the techniques and machinery of image capturing and the architectural space of display. In Blitz, Thater recreates historic chess matches and also puts forth a match with a set outcome, performed like musical scores or dances with formalized steps. In doing so, Thater decodes complicated rituals of the strategic, war-like game. Each of the six screens shows a different point in the matches. The behavioral patterns developed over the course of the games are exposed as repetition, rest, and momentum become more evident.