Jennifer Steinkamp's video installations are unapologetically beautiful and fill the walls of Acme gallery with streams of digital flowers and undulating clouds of color. A former commercial animator, Steinkamp makes professional and seamlessly executed work, not seeking to disrupt the highly discussed "passivity" of video but instead use it to purely aesthetic ends. The waterfalls of images are therapeutic and pleasing. The viewer is so immersed in the constant flow and subtle movements of the flowers that they might think they are a poet watching grass blow in the wind, closely paying attention to the tiniest of details.

Steinkamp might prove a test case for the future viability of beauty in the discussion of video and her work asks many important questions. Without politics, critique, or narrative being intrinsically part of the work, for instance, what distinguishes Steinkamp's work from being merely giant size versions of the video aquariums or fireplaces one sees in your doctor's waiting rooms? Are Steinkamp's videos sterile versions of nature for those who cannot find it or essential, earnest efforts to encourage our re-discovery of nature, honing our often jaded visions back to flowers and clouds?  These questions are difficult to answer and Steinkamp's work may require simply a from-the-gut reaction. For most people, the reaction is awe- inspiring and glorious.

- Ed Schad

(Images top-bottom:  Jennifer Steinkamp; Humerus, 2008, Two computer animated projections; Jennifer Steinkamp, It's a nice day for a white wedding. white + blue, 2008, Computer animated projection.  Courtesy of ACME, LA)