"Tongue Points The Way to September's Destiny" NYArts Magazine Vol.9 (November/December 2004) N.11/12 pg.93.



            Of the three major video shows on 24th St. this September (the other two being Miroslaw Balka at Gladstone and Annika Larsson at Andrea Rosen), I like Pipilotti Rist's best. Rist has managed to create an environment that is spacious, despite it's being filled with visual elements, and sexy, despite it's innocence. There's nothing new here for the Swiss artist but she does what she does so well.
            No one else making video today creates the kind of air, light and freedom that Rist does in her films. The crisp mountain air is almost tangible behind the small- scale replica of a mountain range: the diminuitive peaks are staged in front of huge projections. The video is composed of handheld shots which Rist vertiginously composed to document the country side of her childhood. She lets abandon dictate. It's like The Sound of Music with a bottle of really good vodka.
            The house structure and the clear objects hung in front of the projection on the opposite wall are somewhat effective as visual elements. They serve their purpose setting up the contemplative space of home.
            But it's Rist's tongue that takes the show. It appears quite often in the projection on the right. But it's not flitted around here pornographically. As is common with Rist's use of sexuality, she applies school-girl innocence to her use of it. This, of course, amps up it's sexiness and makes this show hot, hot, hot.