was born in Hurst, Texas, in 1976 and is a New York-based visual artist and musician. He works in video, sound, and sculpture. He has exhibited at MoMA PS1 and the New Museum, both in New York; the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; and the Contemporary Art Center of Tel Aviv, among other venues. MFA 2007
Our Land, 2006
Single-channel video, color, sound, with Bear Sculpture, 2006
Video: 11 min.; sculpture: 56 x 15 x 15 in.
Courtesy the artist
Ronnie Bass infuses the subject of his work with dreams of utopia, romanticism, and self-realization as a way to counteract difficult and seemingly oppressive environments. The installation Our Land centers on a nine-minute video that follows the fictional narrative of Chad, a suburban computer store manager played by Bass, and his two faithful employees. The three are united by a shared woodcarving hobby, as they carry out their vision to build a microchip factory and new community in the desert. Constructing a mise-en-scène of fundamentalist revivalism, the American West, and a low-tech version of Silicon Valley, the video's deadpan musical account points to the inherent irony in the group's attempts to forge solidarity, friendship, and a sense of common understanding in the contemporary capitalist world. Bass completes the installation with a sculpture of a bear (the finished product from Part I of the video) and a houseplant, creating the effect of a bureaucratic waiting room or a Protestant church.
The Sky Needs You Too, 2008
Single-channel video, color, sound
8 min.
Courtesy the artist
The videos of Ronnie Bass reveal a fascination with affirming sincerity and self-realization while facing the banality of daily existence. With New Age mysticism, ambient minimal music scores, and Bass's own intriguing performance as the main character, The Sky Needs You Too depicts an allegorical call and response to nature, layering footage of an ascending horizon over a synth band's performance. Evoking the mystic possibilities of the landscape through tropes of romanticism and utopian possibility, Bass simultaneously cautions against technology as a remedy for the reconstitution of power of humankind over nature.
