The Schedule. I made a color-coded schedule designed to help me see as many different works as possible, taking into account some of my own time constraints. It's been suggested it might be helpful to share it; here it is. I'm planning to go to the yellow-highlighted items. (I'd have highlighted more "Maxi Geil!" except I happen to have seen more of Guy Richards Smit's work before than I have most of the other artists, so I opted for work less known to me.)
Some Faves So Far. This is in haste, so I'll mostly just quote the Fusebox website.
GuruGuru (2009) by Rotozaza:
Conceived and created by Ant Hampton, with Joji Koyama and Isambard Khroustalio.
Five participants (each receiving different instructions via their earpieces) talk together with a televised character whose role flicks uncannily between spiritual and marketing guru. Revelling in the absurdities of marketing technique and group therapy, Hampton, Koyama and Khroustaliov reverse the awkward history of consumer research by allowing their audience to create their own animated therapist – by means of a focus group!
Unleashing what Ernest Dichter called 'the secret self of the consumer' and allowing it to run about perhaps a little too freely, GuruGuru also explores the amusing yet complex notion of ‘wearing’ opinions and emotional reactions as one might a choice of clothes: as with 'Etiquette' (Rotozaza's earlier show in the Autoteatro series), audience members find themselves falling into a strange kind of dialogue by simply following pre-recorded instructions as to what to say and do.
GuruGuru (round-and-round in Japanese) is created by Ant Hampton in collaboration with acclaimed film-maker / animation artist Joji Koyama, and longtime collaborator Isambard Khroustaliov (Sam Britton - musician, electronic composer and one half of the group Icarus.)
More here, where you can make a reservation, which is recommended. (
UPDATE: I've posted a more in-depth discussion of
GuruGuru here.)
Keys to Our Heart, 24:18 min. (2008) by Kalup Linzy: . . . a black-and-white narrative in which the artist stars as a misanthropic grande dame who dispenses advice to a trio of troubled young lovers. Linzy, who performs all of the characters' dialogue, shot and directed Keys To Our Heart in the style of a Hollywood Melodrama, which was created for Prospect.1 New Orleans in 2008.
Let me just add, watch out for aspects of this piece that are odd or incongruous with expectations created by his use of vintage visuals and clichéd cinematic devices. (UPDATE: I've posted a more in-depth discussion of Keys here.)
And I have to mention pink, though by the time you read this, it'll be over in Austin (but I think they tour). I understand the C.E.O. is Jaclyn Pryor.[pink unplugged] is both a real-life courier service and an interactive, site-specific art installation.
Visitors are invited to visit pink’s temporary love [note] factory set up along Austin's City Hall plaza, where they can type a love note to someone in Austin. Notes are bottled on site by pink’s love factory workers and delivered by bicycle by pink’s love couriers anywhere in the city. pink [unplugged] celebrates not only human connectivity but human power. The factory is powered entirely by human & bicycle-generated energy.
[Click on the images for larger versions.] Among
pink's other charming aspects, note-typers could use the hotel-desk-style bell to signal various matters including a request for help with inspiration.
UPDATE: You can see more visuals of
pink here. I'd also like to mention a few more faves I've seen since this was first posted:
Paul Villinski's
Emergency Response Studio (2008),
érection by
Pierre Rigal and Aurélien Bory, and
The Method Gun by
Rude Mechs.
The whole article is one mind-boggling bit after another; but here's a taste:
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