"NOBODY PUTS MINHAE IN THE NOOK"
is a phrase coined playfully by my friend, Amanda Wild, as we were discussing
the logistics of setting up our show, Nowhere/Now Here, at the Harbor Art
Gallery.
As a video artist and an artist who is
interested in using and exploring media, I've noticed that displaying my work
presents a distinct set of complications. For the upcoming show, I'll be
exhibiting a new media installation, titled Video Sassoon. The work is a
multimedia experience that has sculptural, audio, and video elements. Below is a statement about the work:
"Video Sassoon is a
phantasmagorical meditation on media, remediation, and the editing process.
Discarded strips of videotape are repurposed to create a screen through which a
digital video is projected. In the video, newly severed pieces of hair float
across the screen to the tune of a familiar funeral ballad that has been
rendered unrecognizable by the editing process. The work uses the inescapably
human material of hair to comment on the omnipresence of media and its
evolution, and to connect video editing to a familiar, tactile experience."
So where does a piece like this, and other
video or media works, go within the space of a gallery or a museum? The Harbor
Art Gallery has a "nook" in the far left of the gallery. It's an
enclosed space made of temporary walls within the gallery itself. During
discussions of which artist will display where, the running joke was that my
work "was perfect for the nook." And we'll be going to put the show
up tomorrow morning in fact, so I'll make sure to document the set-up process.
Scholars who study digital media,
such as Christiane Paul, are aware of the issues of new media exhibition and
are actively engaged in the problem-solving process for displaying works of new
media: "New media art seems to call for a distributed, 'living'
information space that is open to artistic interference - a space for exchange,
collaborative creation and presentation that is transparent and flexible."
Video Sassoon is a piece that needs space to be displayed and experienced. I'm sure that there will be challenges in the
installation and exhibition process in the video nook, but I'm also excited to
see how the exhibition space itself will transform and contribute to the work.
The above photographs were from the
initial projection test. More photos and info about the final installed piece,
and the show, to come.
