On view
Filmed from the balcony of Atlas’s temporary apartment on Captiva Island, the artist captured the breathtaking sight of the Florida sunset and Gulf shores over several weeks. An abstract landscape, Atlas created a grid comprised of 36 sunsets that captured the brilliant orange sun dipping into, and ultimately beneath, the horizon. A pensive soundtrack accompanies the video installation, emphasizing the culmination of the day. The video features a sculptural component—an illuminated clock that counts down from 18 minutes to zero, a representation of the time it takes the sun to set. Kiss the Day Goodbye alludes to the passage of time and sentiments related to endings. When the countdown clock strikes zero, the video restarts and the sun begins its descent once more, a metaphor for the cycle of days and events that shape our lives.
The presentation of Kiss the Day Goodbye at the Tampa Museum of Art coincides with the 1-year anniversary of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which arrived on the Gulf Coast as category 4 and category 3 hurricanes two weeks apart from each other in the fall of 2024. The catastrophic weather harmed the region’s coastlines and damaged swathes of neighborhoods in the Tampa Bay area. Atlas’s Kiss the Day Goodbye, created by the artist 10 years ago, reminds viewers of the timeless beauty of the Gulf’s shorelines, the enduring wonder of its ecosystem, and the fragility of our coastal environment. Hurricanes Helene and Milton upended life in Tampa Bay. Yet with each ending comes beginnings, a sentiment that has strengthened our sense of community. Each breathtaking sunset serves as a reminder of why we call Tampa Bay home.
About the Artist
Charles Atlas’s influential career spans over five decades. He moved to New York City in 1968 and was a regular at the movies, enjoying both mainstream and independent films. In the early 1970s, Atlas started working with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as an assistant stage manager. While on tour, Atlas filmed a solo of one of the Company’s dancers with a Super 8 camera. This short film inspired his life’s work. Atlas, together with Cunningham, forged new creative directions with “media-dance,” a genre that focuses on choreography for film and video rather than documentation of a performance with a live audience. In this medium, Atlas utilizes framing to highlight movement, sequencing, and time to emphasize the emotion and narrative of his subjects.
Atlas worked with Cunningham for nearly 40 years and befriended artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns who collaborated frequently with the choreographer. Atlas has also partnered with Michael Clark, a Scottish dancer celebrated for his fusion of ballet and punk, as well as Yvonne Rainer, Marina Abramovic, Leigh Bowery, and Lady Bunny. Atlas’s art has been presented across the globe in exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, Tate Modern, and others. His archive resides at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. In 2024, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston mounted Charles Atlas: About Time, a comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s oeuvre. Atlas continues to live and work in New York City.