The world premiere of Ernie Gehr’s large-scale, multiscreen video installation “Carnival of Shadows” is simultaneously a reflection on early animation and genre cinema, a playful exercise in moving-image graphics, and an extension of the artist’s interest in the abstraction, texture, and rhythms of visual material. Its source is an early 20thcentury shadowgraph toy, which used “paper print films” in the form of sequential silhouette drawings that were brought to life as they passed before a stroboscopic screen. Gehr’s silent, digital video adaptation transforms five original paper subjects, all issued in France c. 1900–05. “Carnival” is a complement to Gehr’s 2007 “pre-cinema” work “Panoramas of the Moving Image.” The Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53 St. Through Jul. 4 only: Sat.-Thu., 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Fri., 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Admission is $25; $18 for seniors; $14 for students; free for 16 and under. Information at moma.org.
