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ALBANY, N.Y. - "Once Upon a Time: Fiction and Fantasy in Contemporary Art, Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art" opens at the New York State Museum December 14.

Extending through March 9, 2003 in the museum's West Gallery, the exhibition is the ninth installment of the Fleet Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, which brings art from New York City's leading art museums to Albany.

Organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the exhibition focuses on the process of visual storytelling through the creation of fictional narratives and fantasy worlds. Dreams, personal mythologies, and imagined events are incorporated to tell either a personal or universal story by means of these imaginary worlds and invented characters. In addition to focusing on the particular fiction of each artist, the exhibition will also examine the means through which each story is told.

Included are 29 works, created between 1974-2001, from the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum. Artists include James Barsness, Jonathan Borofsky, Frank Moore, Nicole Eisenman, Vik Muniz, Kiki Smith, Jason Salavon, Carrie Mae Weems, Pepón Osorio, Paul Pfeiffer, Lorna Simpson, Roger Brown, David Levinthal, Matthew Ritchie, and William Wegman.

Storytelling is not only a form of entertainment. It serves as an historical record and cultural necessity of humankind. The process of incorporating a narrative discourse into visual art is accomplished through a myriad of means and expressions that challenge the representation of the story and the very process by which it is told. "Once Upon a Time: Fiction and Fantasy in Contemporary Art" focuses on storytelling techniques that artists have used during the last three decades to create fictional worlds, recount personal and ethnic histories, challenge our memories,
and manipulate the narrative through digital technology.

Mythology, religion, and fairy tales are sources of stories first told to children, and recounted through various versions and media over the course of one's life. While Roger Brown draws upon the New Testament account of Palm Sunday for his satirical work, "The Entry of Christ into Chicago in 1976" (1976), James Barsness takes inspiration from mythology in "The Midgaard Serpent" (2000). In Norse mythology, Midgaard was the region between heaven and hell inhabited by humans, or Earth. In almost comic book fashion, the print shows Jormungand, a serpent cast out of heaven and consigned to the ocean depths by Odin, chief of the Norse gods. The serpent, however, grew to such an enormous size that it was able to bite its own tail, enclosing the Earth and catching all humankind within its grip. The circular form of the serpent represents an infinite cycle, or eternity, and it was said that if he were to let go of his tail and break the circle, the world would dissolve into chaos.

In contrast to Barsness's graphic depiction, Alexis Smith takes a familiar story in "Beauty and the Beast" (1977) and dissects its narrative into a postmodern re-telling, breaking it up into sections that disjointedly allude to the overall tale.

Carrie Mae Weems uses a documentary approach in her photography to impart ideas about her African American heritage and present a living past and its ongoing traditions. The "Sea Islands" series (1992) was made on one of Georgia's islands where an African culture with ties to its history of enslavement still exists, protected by geographical isolation. Weems examines this culture and the impact that its identity and traditions had on the surrounding environment, both physically and spiritually.

Pepón Osorio's "Angel: The Shoe Shiner" (1993) commemorates a culture by incorporating mass-produced plastic trinkets, video work, and souvenirs from the Puerto Rican experience and tradition. The work elevates the form of a simple shoeshine stand to that of a throne, or a shrine to the man who worked it. His unappreciated task is depicted in the endless loops of two videos ensconced in the throne. Using an assemblage of elements, Osorio creates a multi-layered view of the shoe shiner as a simple worker, a reminder of the man's heritage and his often-overlooked humanity and spirituality.

Vik Muniz applies the idea of memory and association to a universal level through his series, "The Best of Life" (1985-1995). In this work, the artist challenges our collective remembrance of 20th-century events through his renditions of iconic photographs. After losing his copy of "The Best of Life," compilation of that magazine's most notable photographs, Muniz decided to draw some of the images from memory. He then photographed the drawings, and
created his own portfolio of them. Most viewers can recall the original photograph and,
therefore, the event depicted, effortlessly. However, a closer inspection of the works reveals that
what our mind has preconceived as the complete image differs from what Muniz's renderings actually portray.

With digital technology, Paul Pfeiffer and Jason Salavon manipulate stories and transform the viewer's original experience of a work into a new and different perception. Pfeiffer uses elements of sculpture, video, computer photocollage, and digital technology to rearrange familiar filmic icons for an investigation into the human body and psyche. In "The Pure Products Go Crazy" (1998), Pfeiffer presents a moment from the film "Risky Business" (1983) in which Tom Cruise's character collapses on a couch following an energetic dance around his living room to celebrate the departure of his parents. Pfeiffer isolates this moment in a small video format and repeatedly loops the scene, making it appear as if the character is moving endlessly back and forth, as if having a seizure. Although the moment in the original film was an ecstatic culmination of a dance of freedom to a memorable Bob Seger song, Pfeiffer removes the component of sound and the viewer witnesses the silent anguish of the character, which appears to be eternally locked in physical agony.

Jason Salavon breaks down a digitized version of the film "Titanic (1997)," which grossed the highest box office revenue in motion picture history, into 336,247 individual frames. These were analyzed independently and mathematically to determine which single color best represented the overall color scheme of each frame, and replaced with that color. Once all of the frames were converted, Salavon arranged them according to their narrative sequence and reformatted the work as a photograph reading left to right, top to bottom. The end result, "The Top Grossing Film of All Time, 1 x 1" (2000) allows the viewer to see the entire epic movie in an instant.

While oral and written stories conjure pictures in the imagination, visual portrayals leave actual narrative the open to interpretation. The works in this exhibition contain a variety of stories that invite the viewer to determine their hidden meanings and to delight in newfound associations and discoveries.

"Beyond the inviting title of this fascinating exhibition is a collection of engaging,
sometimes menacing, and sometimes playful works of art from the Whitney Museum's vast 20th
century holdings," said Mark Schaming, the State Museum's director of exhibitions and programs. "These personal narratives, invented from the artists' interior worlds, are incredibly powerful expressions that make for a memorable exhibition."

The New York State Museum expresses its gratitude to Fleet, First Lady Libby Pataki, the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. The state museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov. a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.