Monday, July 13, 2009

And/Or





This last weekend i made my way over to PS1 for the summer Warmup Party (which was a dance party tribute to the amazing composer/disco God Arthur Russell) and I stumbled upon the work of jonathan horowitz..whose work i had never seen before. I have to say that i thought about it..alot. It was enough to get my brain ticking and also my senses moving....i especially loved his video/installation SILENT MOVIE in which there was a video mashup of scenes from Tommy, The MIracle Worker, and others that were completely silent except for when the automatic piano was playing randomly..Its amazing how music is a part of a cinematic experience! awesome..check it out i guess. Or google it if you are a lazy assssssss.


heres what the site says about ittttt
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents Jonathan Horowitz: And/Or, the first solo exhibition of the New York-based artist at a New York museum. Working in video, sculpture, sound installation, and photography, Horowitz critically examines the cultures of politics, celebrity, cinema, war, and consumerism. The exhibition will include works ranging from the early 1990s to the present, on view in the 1st Floor Main Galleries, with an additional work concurrently on view at The Museum of Modern Art in the 2nd Floor Café.
From found footage, Horowitz visually and spatially juxtaposes elements from film, television, and the media to reveal connections and breakdowns between these overlapping modes of communication. In many works, these concerns are couched in the language of technology. In his video projection Maxell (1990), the image of the well-known videocassette brand logo plays from a tape copied many times over; the word deteriorates into a blur of static as the information on the tape erodes. Horowitz also notes the value systems inherent in media by establishing a sculptural presence for his video works, where VHS tapes and television monitors are positioned as objects on metal stands.
Horowitz repositions news publications like Life and Time, evocative of wholesome American ideals, to draw subversive connections. This critical eye includes current political references: a maudlin oversized novelty figurine is entitled Hillary Clinton is a Person Too (2008). Other work addresses the inverted politics of celebrity activism, whereby celebrities align themselves with particular issues in order to construct and reclaim their identities. Media-generated imagery of icons Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, and Helen Keller, not unlike those used by Warhol, is combined with quotations expressing political conviction, resulting in a new form of humanist Pop portraiture. Horowitz likewise applies this same humanist strategy to his work in other mediums: minimalist-style sculptures such as Tofu on Pedestal in Gallery and Two-Sided Monument similarly communicate the artist’s signature combination of subjectivity, pathos, and humor.

text from http://www.PS1.org

1 comment:

Message AMP said...

i like the campaign one. I'm pondering doing a doc short on a ranter on bedford ave. sort of related