Roden Crater, 2009. Single-channel HD video
Courtesy the artist and Lisa Cooley Fine Art, New York
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ERIN SHIRREFF began making her 2009 video Roden Crater by printing out a photograph found online of JAMES TURRELL’s unfinished monument of land art. She then rephotographed the image under various kinds of lighting, artificially mimicking the changing sky above the crater. The 15-minute loop includes a closing sequence that reveals increasingly the glare of the camera’s repeated flash upon the found image.

New York-based artist ERIN SHIRREFF ’s photographs, videos and sculptures exploit the interval between mediums as a means of destabilizing conventional ways of seeing an object or image.

SHIREFF’s art can at times be dry and difficult to access, and her most engaging works are still her videos. Conceptually, however, this show couldn’t be more timely. As our world becomes ever more absorbed by images, her efforts remind us how urgent it is to understand what’s real.— ANNE DORAN

ERIN SHIRREFF lives and works in New York City. Her work is on view this summer at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and the Aspen Art Museum, and she is currently artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation.