“Recently the New York Public Library granted me access to the Rose Main Reading Room outside of normal library hours. It was in this room nearly 100 years ago that fact-checking was invented by a small team of women—who have all since been edited out of history. I imagine as the first fact-checkers developed their processes and performed their research, they would gaze up towards the room’s glorious ceiling for a moment of respite. A view of billowing clouds of pink and orange set against a bright blue sky evokes enlightened thought.
But this sky is fixed in time—a sunrise or sunset that never reaches resolution. Today more than ever, readily available evidence seems to reflect back what one already believes to be true. Stories are lost, confused, or conflated by the deluge of virtual information with no clear source. Perhaps this painted ceiling was prescient in this way: no light shines from a fabricated sky.”
In this minute-long video, the artist captures a painting of a pink clouded sky at sunrise. The camera movement is slow and steady, evoking a sense of dreaminess and calm. Towards the end of the video, corners of the room where the sky is painted on the ceiling show up, breaking the illusion of the endlessness of this sky and returning the viewer back into the indoors.
Rose (East) (excerpt)
2020
Elizabeth Moran (b. 1984, Houston, Texas) lives and works in New York. Moran’s research-based practice is directed by a preoccupation with evidence of unknown or little-understood histories and often takes form through photography, audio, text, and found objects. In 2014, she received her MFA in Fine Art and MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts. She received her BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include Massimo Ligreggi Gallery (2019) and Southern Methodist University’s Hawn Gallery (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Studio la Città (2019), Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art (2018). Moran’s work was recently featured in VICE and The Dallas Morning News.