The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image May 1, 2008

Film and video technology (as well as television and the internet) and their vocabularies have permeated contemporary culture so that the very boundaries between "real life" and make-believe are often indistinct-sometimes to the point of being indecipherable. 'The Cinema Effect' is a two-part exhibition that will focus on contemporary works of art and the ways in which they adapt, challenge or reflect the influence of cinema and its blurring of definitions of fact and fiction. The exhibition will include film and media installations by a range of international artists including Omar Fast, Gary Hill, Isaac Julien and Steve McQueen, each who have works recently acquired by the Hirshhorn. The exhibition also includes works in other media to demonstrate the pervasiveness of cinema's effect on contemporary culture.