Film is a surface art. Light on the water, shadows on the pavement, white snow on black skin--the illumination of contrasts. British-born filmmaker Isaac Julien plays these surfaces like a chess game, plotting images in calculated quadrants across art gallery walls. From the expansive vistas of the American southwest to the opaque angles of a foggy London corner, Julien's films map territories of emotional transit. Films like The Long Road to Mazatlan and Looking for Langston evince notions of elusive possibilities. Reinventing fabled locales, such as the renaissance-era Harlem of Langston Hughes, Julien gives new witness to tales of longing, lust, and liminality.

But film art, with its multiple projections, fragmented narratives, and sparse dialogue can be disorienting. Perhaps less disorienting then is the film-inspired photograph. For Currents 99: Isaac Julien at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Julien exhibits a group of photographs from the True North series. The photographs were taken in advance of Julien's 2004 film of the same name. Described as a meditative commentary on the sublime, the film muses on the story of Matthew Henson, the African American guide who traveled with explorer Robert E. Peary on a pioneering trek to the North Pole. In both the film and the photographs, Julien once again engages an idealized landscape as the setting for reimagined realities. Unlike a film still, which freezes motion into stasis, this photographic suite of wintry scenes allows you to create your own sequence of events. On February 15 let the artist be your guide. That's when Julien will talk about his work with exhibition curator, Robin Clark, followed by a screening of True North and an exhibition viewing. Currents 99: Isaac Julien is on display at SLAM through March 11.

Above: True North Series (untitled)

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