NOW ON DISPLAY
The Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami becomes a multiplex cinema of sorts for "Cut: Film as Found Object." For each of 14 works in this dazzling show, the artist starts with existing footage, then subjects it to one or more modifications identified as "key gestures": to stretch, remove, arrange, systematize, erase, repair, continue, match. Douglas Gordon's 24 Hour Psycho, for instance, elongates the Hitchcock classic to play, frame by frame, over a full day. CNN Concatenated is an exercise in virtuous editing in which Omer Fast edits snippets of talking heads from the cable channel into terse sentences. And Christian Marclay's amazing Video Quartet uses four large, side-by-side screens to present countless film clips reassembled into a 14-minute concert that's a grand homage to maverick American composer John Cage. (Through January 30 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Joan Lehman Bldg., 770 NE 125th St., North Miami, 305-893-6211.)
"Continental Drift: Installations by Joan Jonas, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Juan Muñoz, and Yinka Shonibare," at the Norton Museum of Art, is cleverly named for the geological phenomenon that separated the supercontinent over millions of years, leaving us with seven continents and thousands of islands that look like puzzle pieces. The installation by four artists -- American, Russian, Spanish, and British, respectively -- is imbued with the flavor of the new global economy. Everything is life-sized, and the pieces range from excellent to overwrought. For example, Shonibare challenges the notion of national identity with perception-versus-reality sleight of hand. Reimagining a famous Gainsborough portrait, in Mr. and Mrs. Adams Without Their Heads, Shonibare has his British colonials -- his headless colonials -- wearing ankara, a fabric associated with African garb. (Through January 2 at the Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach, 561-832-5196, www.norton.org.)