Artist as Shaman- A New Trend?

This year at the art fairs in Miami, I noticed a trend emerging among a few different artists. Although these artists are from very different backgrounds, they are either fully trained shamans or perform shamanistic rituals. In a world that has become increasingly technological and further removed from the natural world, these artists attempt to reconnect us with the earth, the animal and spirit world, and ourselves. At Art Supernova, Jose Alvarez was showing psychedelic works on paper and mica that incorporated porcupine quills and feathers. He also had a video piece that was to simulate the experience of taking natural hallucinogens used in shamanistic rituals. At the Rubell Family Collection and at Art Basel Miami, there were several sound suits by Nick Cave (shown here).

However, my favorite, my personal BEST IN SHOW for all of the Miami art activities was Marcus Coates' 14 screen video installation, Dawn Chorus, at Workplace Gallery in the NADA fair. Coates, a trained shaman who lives in Britain, selected a chorus of birdcalls indigenous to Britain and taught singers to sing as individual birds in the chorus, but at a much slower speed given the human voice. He then filmed these singers in their natural habitats, such as their bedroom or office, singing their call. Finally, each video was sped up to have the singing sound like the actual calls and the video monitors and speakers were installed in the round. Miles Thurlow of Workplace was nice enough to send me some links to Coates' work. The two videos require Quicktime.

Dawn Chorus
2007
HD Video Installation
Edition of 3 (& 2 AP's)
Duration: 18 minutes (looped)
MC0015
Installation view: Dawn Chorus, BALTIC Centre For Contemporary Art, UK
http://workplacegallery.s3.amazonaws.com/Coates/Media/MarcusCoatesDawnChorus.mov

Radio Shaman
2006
HD Video Installation
09:31 mins, Edition of 5 plus 1 artist's proof
MC0016
Courtesy of the Artist and Workplace Gallery, UK
https://phsexchweb.partners.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://workplacegallery.s3.amazonaws.com/radioshaman.mov

You can also read more about his work here:

Marcus Coates Selected Portfolio 2008 (6.7MB)http://workplacegallery.s3.amazonaws.com/Coates/Coatesportfolio/MarcusCoatesSelectedPortfolio08(6.7MB).pdf

Here is going to have a solo show at Workplace Gallery in 2/09 and is going to be part of the Tate Triennial, in case you will be going to the UK in 2009.