Artists Space

U.S. Projects: Howard Fried

February 26 – March 26, 1983

A sink structure on wheels sits atop a tilted wooden table top with legs of varying sizes. Light from the ceiling is seen emanating onto the structure in the white-walled gallery space.
U.S. Projects: Howard Fried. Installation view, Artists Space, 1983. [A sink structure on wheels sits atop a tilted wooden table top with legs of varying sizes. Light from the ceiling is seen emanating onto the structure in the white-walled gallery space.]

Howard Fried's installation, "Sociopath" is a "figurative system involving a spigot, a sink, plumbing, a guitar shaped dishdrainer and a drain. The purpose of the system is to waste water." This elaborate mechanism which emits a monotonous, somewhat abraisive sound is constructed so that it anticipates the viewer's angle of access, creating a "situation of apparent visual and social askewness." Fried describes "the figure in the system" as a "representative of culture in contemporary society."

Howard Fried lives in San Francisco and was chosen for the U.S. Projects series by Mark Rosenthal. Fried has shown his video tapes extensively, most recently at and/or, Seattle, Washington, Media/ Study, Buffalo and in 1979 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York as well as in group shows at the Everson Museum, Syracuse, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Fort Worth Art Museum, in New York at the Whitney Museum and at Anthology Film Archives and in Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Renaissance Society. Fried's installation and performances have been in California at the University Art Museum, Berkeley, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the University Art Gallery, San Jose State University, Reese Paley Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art. Fried has also shown work in West Germany at Documenta 5, Kassel and at the Kunsthalles in Dusseldorf and in Cologne.

U.S. Projects is a series of ten individual installations. Ten art professionals around the country have each selected on artists from their region. The U.S. Projects series has been funded by the Museums Program of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Artists Space regular exhibition program is sponsored by the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of Museum Services, the Jerome Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the Samuel Rubin Foundation, and the Lauder Foundation. Corporate Sponsors are AT&T Long Lines, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, Consolidated Edison, Exxon Corporation, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, I.M. Pei & Partners, Philip Morris and Warner Communication.