Digital Break-down

The work of Finnish film director and visual artist Mika Taanila asks more questions than it answers. Through a skeptic's lens, Taanila explores our modern age of ever-evolving, innovative technology, always equally concerned with what's been lost to progress as with what's been gained. A major recurring theme in Taanila's work is the widening gap between the modern and natural worlds, and how the human pursuit to evolve harder, faster, stronger can further expand that divide, disconnecting humanity from its primal self. His first solo show in America, Mika Taanila: Tomorrow's New Dawn, opens with a free public reception Friday, May 24, at the Contemporary Art Museum (3750 Washington Boulevard; 314-535-4660 or www.camstl.org). The exhibit includes the North American debut of a major video installation Taanila created for a German contemporary-art exhibition called dOCUMENTA, as well as a series of photograms based on famous scenes in Hollywood films. Tomorrow's New Dawn remains on display Wednesday through Sunday (May 24 through August 11). Admission is $3 to $5, but free on opening night.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: May 24. Continues through Aug. 11, 2013