The Phillips Collection’s Intersection exhibition with the DC-based artist Jonathan Monaghan opens Sept 22–Dec 31. Titled Move the Way You Want, the project is a multipart, site-specific installation and video projection that will entirely transform the interior of the historic dining room in Phillips House.
Monaghan’s work explores the living anxieties of contemporary culture where consumerism and technology co-depend and have overtaken our ecology. He draws from a wide range of sources including historical artworks, ancient mythology, science fiction, video games, and VR.
Monaghan’s digitally created imagery creates an architectural trompe-l’oeil that overlays Gothic and Baroque archways with contemporary beachscapes littered with bike shares, abandoned scooters, and Pelotons—a large video projection of a mythical horse adds to the visual pandemonium of the space. He references the ways in which consumerism and technology has overtaken our ecology.
As a part of The Phillips ongoing contemporary arts program, Intersections, Monaghan’s installation is made in reference to two works within the permanent collection: Giorgio de Chirico’s Horse (1928) and Théodore Géricault’s Two Horses (1808-09).
