This Collapsed and Expanding Breath, a new immersive video installation by acclaimed multidisciplinary artists Megan and Murray McMillan, is coming to the Jamestown Arts Center.
Opening on April 25, 2025, this exhibition explores the intricate resonance between celestial mechanics and family dynamics, transforming the gallery into an experiential landscape of light, movement, and sculptural intervention.
At the heart of the exhibition is a newly commissioned video installation that interweaves sculptural elements inspired by celestial motion and featuring the artists’ children, friends, and families. Filmed at the Jamestown Arts Center and featuring astrophotography from the dark sky reserve in Far West Texas, the work visually and sonically echoes the gravitational forces that shape both cosmic structures and human relationships. The project draws from the artists’ research at the McDonald Observatory, where radio telescopes listen for pulsars—rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit rhythmic pulses, forming a cosmic heartbeat that parallels the cycles of presence and absence in human connection.
True to their artistic practice, the McMillans’ performers are invited to inhabit the space as themselves, engaging in intuitive actions while choreographed elements unfold around them. This blurring of real and staged performance allows for moments of authenticity within constructed environments, mirroring the tension between control and spontaneity that defines both astronomical and human interactions.
“We are captivated by the fleeting moment of the individual and the lasting power of a group moving as a communal whole,” say the McMillans. “Our work invites people into a world where movement, light, and space merge—where the gravitational forces between human relationships mirror celestial rhythms. Through an interplay of structured environments and organic performance, we create spaces that allow for both contemplation and transformation.”
Through a poetic interplay of breath, expansion, and collapse, the installation integrates a dynamic set of sculptural forms, including parachute-like structures, floating spheres, and modified 19th-century circular knitting machines reimagined as astronomical observation devices. These antique machines—historically used for mechanized weaving—become metaphors for unseen forces of interconnection, automation, and celestial cycles.
The exhibition also features The Shifting Space Around Us, a multichannel video and photographic series that extends the show’s exploration of collapse and renewal. Originally presented as a live film shoot on a rotating train turntable, this work investigates how space is continuously deconstructed and reformed, mirroring both cosmic and relational dynamics. In dialogue with This Collapsed and Expanding Breath, this work continues the McMillans’ investigation into cycles of collapse and renewal, now recontextualized within the current exhibition.
Megan and Murray McMillan, known for their multidisciplinary approach combining video, installation, and performance, have exhibited internationally at institutions including MASS MoCA, the deCordova Museum, and the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art.
This Collapsed and Expanding Breath is on view during regular gallery hours from April 25–June 14, 2025. through January 4, 2025 (Wednesday–Saturday, 11 am–3 pm). Exhibitions at the JAC are free and open to all. Free Opening Reception will be held on Friday, April 25, 5:30-7:30 pm. The artists will appear In Conversation with Carla Gannis, transmedia artist and NYU professor and Lara Pan, international curator, on May 3 at 4 pm.
