"The Infinity Machine" at the Menil
John Hill
3. February 2015
Photo: Screenshot
Artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller have taken over the Menil's Byzantine Fresco Chapel, three years after the namesake frescoes were returned to Cyprus.
The chapel, designed by Francois de Menil, was built and consecrated in 1997 after the Menil Collection, acting on behalf of the Church of Cyprus, rescued some 13th-century Greek Orthodox frescoes and restored them for display. De Menil designed the chapel as a box within a box; concrete on the outside, inside the frescoes were mounted to frosted glass panels that echoed the volume of the 13th-century chapel from where they came. After being displayed for 25 years, the loan agreement ended in 2012 and the Menil returned the frescoes to Cyprus. The now-deconsecrated space will be home to Cardiff-Miller's multimedia mobile for one year, starting 31 January 2015.
Exterior and interior of the chapel (Photos: Paul Warchol)
Here is a short video from the Houston Chronicle with Toby Kamps, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Menil Collection, explaining The Infinity Machine:
And here is a 10-minute film from 2012, photographed and edited by Adam Baker, documenting the de-installation of the frescoes and the glass structure: