Artists Space

Signs of Fiction

March 2 – April 1, 1989

An exhibition of videotapes curated by Sharon Greytak.

A person in a long coat, hat, and sunglasses leans against a doorframe.
Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe, After the Paint Has Dried, 1986. 15 minutes, 16mm, color. Film still. [A person in a long coat, hat, and sunglasses leans against a doorframe.]

Artists Space is pleased to announce the presentation of Signs of Fiction, a program of experimental videotapes and films on tape produced by seven independent film/videomakers. The works presented in Signs of Fiction are not as concerned with the adaptation of narrative fiction to the screen image, as they are to being perceived primarily as literary hybrids that give equal attention to the spoken or written text, as well as to the text and subtext of the visual image. If a different approach to viewing these rarely screened works could occur, it might be to envision the completely in description, written on paper, as a courtroom transcript of their sounds, images, sensations, pace, and tone. The connection that might be drawn is that these works resemble and parallel much of the work by new contemporary fiction writers.

Signs of Fiction Press Release

Signs of Fiction Leaflet Cover

Signs of Fiction Program Cover

Artists Space programs are made possible by: the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; AT&T Foundation, Inc., The David Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion, The Bohen Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Inc., Horace w. Goldsmith Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, Jerome Foundation, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, The Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, Inc., The Joe and Emily Lowe Foundation, Inc., The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, The Menemsha Fund, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, Betty Parsons Foundation, The Reed Foundation, Inc., The Rockefeller Foundation, The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.; American Express Company, The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., Equitable Real Estate Group, Inc., General Atlantic Corporation, R.H. Macy and Company, Inc., Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, Philip Morris Companies Inc., and U.S. Trust Company of New York; as well as Artwatch, Galleries in Support of Artists Space, Members and numerous Friends.

Artists Space is a member of the National Association of Artists Organizations (NAAO) and the National Alliance of Media Arts Centers (NAMAC).