Focus on Purple (2017 video installation) and discuss the abstract.
Purple is a 62-minute immersive six-channel video installation created by the British artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah in 2017. It draws from hundreds of hours of archival footage and combines with newly shot film, spoken word, and original music to explore climate change and its effects on human communities, biodiversity and the wilderness. It is divided into five movements and includes locations such as Alaska, Greenland, New York, Mumbai, rural Scotland, Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific.
It was commissioned by the Barbican, London and co-commissioned by Bildmuseet, Sweden; TBA21-Academy; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon; and Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow. It premiered at the Curve, Barbican in October 2017 where it exhibited for nine weeks.Purple was jointly acquired by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, in 2021.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Bildmuseet, Sweden Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Berardo Collection Museum John Akomfrah Washington, D.C. Curve, Barbican Bildmuseet Moscow video Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon Lisbon Sweden Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow London Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston Barbican, London