III Points Adds "Surface Imagery" Exhibit With Agustina Woodgate, Domingo Castillo, and Other Miami Artists

Just when it didn't seem possible to squeeze one more thing into your packed III Points itinerary, the festival has announced its latest addition: "Surface Imagery," an exhibition of video-based artwork by some of Miami's best-known artists.

Presented in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), the show will feature works by Domingo Castillo; Cara Despain and Agustina Woodgate, with Sebastian Bellver and Kenny Riches; Jessica Gispert; and Nicolas Lobo.

"Surface Imagery" is a collection of four video works. In each, according to a statement from the ICA, "artists apply different strategies of interpreting images of vernacular culture and creating visual experiences reflecting on our cultural and material environment."

Translation: These are movies about Miami, bro.

Castillo, formerly of The End/Spring Break and current cofounder of Noguchi Breton gallery, will contribute the exhibition's namesake, Surface Image: Prologue: Oranges. Inspired by John McPhee's 1967 book Oranges, a deep dive into Florida's citrus industry, the video blends text from the book with found footage — say, of adorable kitties just chilling with some oranges, for instance.

In Gispert's piece, El Flee, "looming smoke, as used against the ubiquitous Floridian insects, and a stump of a palm tree set the tropical framework for a young man conjuring magic forces in his backyard." It's ostensibly about Florida's fascination with the occult, but that description makes it difficult not to also make the connection to Zika and recent controversial methods of controlling its spread.

Lobo's Grape Syrup Action for Paul Octavian Nasca’s "U Smile," 800% Slower adds a visual component to Romanian programmer Paul Octavian Nasca's version of Justin Bieber's "U Smile," which slowed the song down 800 percent. The audio went viral in 2010; Lobo's version updates it with scenes of a masked figure spraying grape-colored syrup onto white walls.

The final video is a collaboration among Despain, Woodgate, Bellver, and Riches. In Cracked, viewers watch grandiose shots of scenery of the American West — and Woodgate and Despain provide a laugh track.

The works will be on view at Mana Wynwood throughout III Points Festival.

III Points
October 7 through 9 at Mana Wynwood, 8 NW 23rd St., Miami. Tickets start at $70. Visit iiipoints.com.