Blum & Poe is pleased to present Stop.Move., a group exhibition featuring Nathalie Djurberg, Hirsch Perlman, Robin Rhode, and Matt Saunders. 

Stop.Move. explores the use of stop motion film, video and animation in the work of four contemporary artists working with a diverse range of original source material (photography, painting, sculpture, performance).

The earliest examples of stop motion film date to the late 19th century and utilized the incremental movement of inanimate objects or formed clay figures (claymation). When photographed frame by frame and strung together, these stills provided the illusion of fluid movement. As the medium progressed, actors began placing themselves in the frame, often to comedic effect, clumsily jerking their bodies from frame to frame. This new film technology allowed for the illusion of super human feats of strength or impossible movement through space and time. 

Stop.Move. presents four unique takes on the stop motion tradition via recombinant means and materials. This small cross section of film and video evince the painstaking handmade quality of their 19th-century predecessors while telling 21st-century stories grounded in four distinct media.

Nathalie Djurberg (b.1978 Lysekil, Sweden) Djurberg's formed clay children and animals belie the transgressive acts committed in surreal hand-crafted model world. Recent solo shows include Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2005), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2008), and the Prada Foundation, Milan (2008). The artist lives and works in Berlin.

Hirsch Perlman (b. 1960 Chicago, IL) Never before exhibited in Los Angeles, Hirsch Perlman's 2001 artwork, Two More Affect Studies, sets in motion crudely layered 35mm photographic stills against the cool fluid soundtrack of Johnny Cash and Miles Davis.  Two More Affect Studies exemplifies Perlman's interest in a low-tech DIY studio practice, simultaneously exposing the artist's process to its core and offering viewers the pleasures of his simple gesture. Recent solo shows include Drammens Museum, Norway (2006), Museum of Modern Art, New York (1996) and group shows include Nine Lives, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2009), The Whitney Biennial, New York (1998 and 2002), Venice Biennale, Venice (1993). Perlman is a professor of sculpture at UCLA. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles.

Robin Rhode (b. 1976 Cape Town, South Africa) Playful and melancholy in turn, Rhode's films are stories from the street, using performance to animate his measured stop motion sequences. Recent solo shows include Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2010), Street and Studio: From Basquiat to Séripop, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria (2010), White Cube, London (2008) with group exhibitions such as Choreographing You: Fifty years of Art and Dance, The Hayward Gallery, London (2010), VideoStudio Series: Psychogeography, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2008), Street Level: Mark Bradford, William Cordova, and Robin Rhode, ICA Boston (2008). The artist lives and works in Berlin.

Matt Saunders (b. 1975, Tacoma, WA) Saunders' animations begin as hundreds of unique ink paintings on mylar which, when photographed, comprise the painterly stills in his films. Recent solo shows include Harris Lieberman, New York and Renaissance Society, Chicago (both 2010) and Galerie Almine Rech, Paris (2006), with group shows at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (both 2008). The artist lives and works in Berlin and Cambridge, MA.

Selected Works