Ed Atkins at Palais de Tokyo — artnews.com

Ed Atkins, Ribbons, 2014, three channel 4:3 in 16:9 HD video with three 4.1 channel surround soundtracks. COURTESY THE ARTIST, CABINET, LONDON, AND GALERIE ISABELLA BORTOLOZZI, BERLIN This alter ego sports a shaved head; his face and body are covered with blotchy tattoos. A cigarette dangling from one hand, a glass of whiskey gripped in the other, he sits at a bar and begins singing woeful tales of love and loss. He croons a sentimental Randy Newman ditty and, becoming increasingly maudlin, moves on to a 1685 drinking song by Henry Purcell and the Erbarme dich portion of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. And then, quite suddenly, he deflates like a punctured balloon.

Read More