Using video, sculptural installation and performance, American artist Shana Moulton has developed a distinctive psychic and aesthetic realm anchored around her alter ego, Cynthia. Collectively titled Whispering Pines ­­­­– the name taken from the mobile-home park for senior citizens near Yosemite that her parents ran – these episodic videos, begun in 2002, chart Cynthia’s personal tribulations. They also reflect on the relationship between consumerism and the search for spirituality.


In Moulton’s first institutional solo show in the UK, new videos and sculptural installations commissioned by Zabludowicz Collection are presented alongside key recent projects. They are linked by an exploration of feminist spirituality, specifically the motif of the trapped or imprisoned woman. Ideas central to today’s cultural debate, such as the personal wellness industry, ecological protest and alternative models of livings, are addressed with off-kilter humour and a strange sincerity.


The exhibition concludes with the installation Whispering Pines ∞ (2018) in which Moulton, in collaboration with musician Nick Hallett, has extended Cynthia’s adventures into something operatic in scope. Lush and magical song cycles transport viewers upwards with Cynthia, offering a glimpse of new horizons beyond her domestic confines.


Biography
Shana Moulton (b. 1976, Oakhurst, CA. Lives and works in Santa Barbara CA, USA) studied at De Ateliers, Amsterdam; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine, USA; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Berkeley.


Moulton will present newly commissioned work in the 15th Biennale de Lyon, France (18 Sept­ 2019–5 Jan 2020) and the Nuit Blanche festival, Paris, France (5 Oct 2019).

Solo exhibitions have been held at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland, and MOCA Cleveland (all 2016); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2015) and 1646, The Hague, the Netherlands (2014).

Recent group exhibitions include Producing Futures – An Exhibition on Post-Cyber-Feminisms, Migros Museum, Zurich (2019); ANTI, 6th Athens Biennale, Athens (2018); Dreamers Awake, White Cube, London; Health as Metaphor, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Zapopan, Mexico (both 2017) and The People’s Cinema, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria (2016).

Performances include those at Kunsthalle Münster, Germany (2018); Parcours Night, Art Basel, Switzerland (2017); La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2016); Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Primary, Nottingham, UK (both 2016); the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; The Getty, Los Angeles, and South London Gallery, London (all 2014).