Isaac Julien: ‘Ten Thousand Waves’

Artist Isaac Julien will present a screening of his latest film installation work with a lecture and discussion, held in the ATLAS building, Room 100, on the CU-Boulder campus. Isaac Julien’s Ten Thousand Waves is a 9-screen installation shot on location in China.  The work poetically weaves together stories linking China’s ancient past and present. Through an architectural installation, the work explores the movement of people across countries and continents and meditates on unfinished journeys. Filmed on location in the ravishing and remote Guangxi province and at the famous Shanghai Film Studios and various sites around Shanghai, Ten Thousand Waves combines fact, fiction and film essay genres against a background of Chinese history, legend and landscape to create a meditation on global human migrations. Through formal experimentation and a series of unique collaborations, Julien seeks to engage with Chinese culture through  contemporary events, ancient myths and artistic practice.

 

Funding for these programs is generously provided in part by the CU Art Museum benefactors and members, as well as by the CU Boulder Student Arts and Cultural Enrichment (ACE) fees. Additional funding and co-sponsorship of these programs is also generously provided by the Department of English and the Center for Humanities and the Arts, and the Film Studies Department, University of Colorado at Boulder.

 

Bio:

Isaac Julien has been one of the most important artists working in the area of moving image for over 25 years.  His work incorporates different artistic disciplines, drawing from and  commenting on film, dance, photography music, theatre, painting and sculpture, Uniting them to create a unique poetic visual language in audio visual film installations. Julien was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001 for his films The Long Road to  Mazatlán (1999) and Vagabondia (2000). In the same year, he received  the Eugene McDermott Award from MIT in Massachusetts, USA.  He received the Grand Jury Award at the  Kunst Film Biennale in  Cologne, Germany for his work , Baltimore (2003). Julien’s debut film, Looking for Langston (1989) won the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. His feature film Young Soul Rebels won the Semaine de la Critique prize at the Cannes Film Festival. His most recent work is a 9-screen installation, Ten Thousand Waves (2010) which was shot in China with Maggie Cheung, Zhao Tao and Yang Fudong.