Paul Kos

Sirens

1977

Sirens, 1977 (still)

Taking its title from the eponymous mythological creature—famously featured as sea nymphs in Homer’s Odyssey. Sirens exist in literature across many cultures including Ancient Greece and India, described as part bird and part woman, or like a mermaid. They were said to charm men by their song, and, having first lulled them to sleep, tear them to pieces. Those who lived in the sea lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

Paul Kos’s film Sirens presents four hallucinatory scenes, lush and deceptive environments authored by a mischievous agent. Mocking laughter periodically erupts, disturbing implicit assumptions the viewer may hold about the properties of nature. The landscape is instead revealed to be a construction, a hoax of grand scale orchestrated by a taunting faceless overseer. As each peaceful scene is eventually destabilized, one tries to make sense of why it’s all happening. But as the viewer tallies the reasons the earth may want to take revenge, to see its human inhabitants suffer discomfort and distrust, it becomes somehow easier to embrace the shame of embarrassment inherent to the historical treatment of our environment.

Paul Kos is part of the Bay Area Conceptual movement that pioneered video performance and installation art in the late sixties and early seventies. Calling himself a materials-based conceptual artist, he explores properties of various materials not traditionally associated with art and often includes a sound dimension to his work. Kos’s work often shows a slightly absurdist sense of humor which he crystallizes into memorable, smart, and funny images, something shared with that of fellow Californian Bruce Nauman. Kos works with everyday materials and video to enact a playful conceptual engagement with life and the world. He has made sculptures from salt blocks, to be licked away by cows, and has carefully microphoned melting blocks of ice. Throughout these pieces, Kos’s work uses humor to relate the stuff of life back to larger questions of temporality and spirituality.

This artwork is licensed by KADIST for its programs, and is not part of the KADIST collection.

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Paul Kos Sirens

Paul Kos

Sirens