April 12 – May 10, 1986
Artists Space is pleased to present SOCIAL DISEASE by Tony Labat and TWO POSSIBILITIES by Larry Miller. These two video installations, selected by Tony Oursler, are the third presentation of a new video program at Artists Space, initiated with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts. Tony Oursler is an internationally known video artist, who showed his work at Artists Space in 1982.
Tony Labat's new video installation, SOCIAL DISEASE employs five monitors. Two monitors are placed strategically in the space and show images of teenagers smoking cigarettes. The third moitor gives a live record of the other two monitors, and the fourth and fifth monitors show an image of the entire event, monitors, audience and space, which are being captured by two surveyance cameras suspended from the ceiling at different points. All five monitors are set in constant motion.
SOCIAL DISEASE analyses and glamourizes "the gesture." The other images on the other monitors analyse one step further the whole process of observation. These images also take into consideration the architecture of the space, in which sculpture, cameras and monitors are located. SOCIAL DISEASE is highly site-specific and confrontational work, which culminates into what Labat sees as "a dialogue of tension between interacting forces as in furniture, the (monu)mental, light and shadow framed."
Labat is a video and performance artist and lives in San Francisco. He has screened his videotapes throughout America, Europe and Japan. His recent installations include: Ted Greenwald Gallery, NY; "View Points," The Museum of Modern Art, NY; LACE, Los Angeles; "Inspired by Leonardo," Emmanuel Walter Gallery, San Francisco; Maryland Institute College of Art; the Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland.
Larry Miller's TWO POSSIBILITIES is a two channel video installation equipped with special eye pieces and earphones, to be viewed and heard by one individual at a time. The left aural and video program is channeled to the right eye and ear, while the right half is channeled to the left eye and ear. The program begins with an integrated resonance of the two halves of the piece, then moves into a separate polarity and unifies again. The program runs on a five minute cycle, employing techniques which address the separation of right-left brain functions.
Larry Miller lives and works in New York City. He has recently shown his work in one man exhibitions at the Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C. and "As If The Universe Were An Object," at the Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA; as well as group shows, "Precious: An American Cottage Industry of the Eighties," Grey Art Gallery, New York University, at P.P.O.W., and Public Image in New York City. Miller has collaborated with the Fluxus group, and has shown in a number of important exhibitions in Germany and the United States, including the "Young Fluxus" show at Artists Space in April 1982.
Tony Labat is a video and performance artist and lives in San Francisco. He has screened his videotapes throughout America, Europe and Japan. His recent installations include: Ted Greenwald Gallery, NY; "View Points", The Museum of Modern Art, NY; LACE, Los Angeles; "Inspired by Leonardo", Emmanuel Walter Gallery, San Francisco; Maryland Institute College of Art; the Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland.
Larry Miller lives and works in New York City. He recently shown his work in one man exhibitions at the Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA; as well as group shows, "Precious: An American Cottage Industry of the Eighties", Grey Ary Gallery, New York University, at P.P.O.W., and Public Image in New York City. Miller has collaborated with the Fluxus group, and has shown in a number of important exhibitions in Germany and the United States, including the "Young Fluxus" show at Artists Space in April 1982.
Video activities at Artists Space are supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Artists Space activities are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency; New York State Council on the Arts, Institute for Museum Services, and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Art Matters, Inc., Equitable Real Estate Group, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Inc., Jerome Foundation, Leonhardt Foundation, Betty Parsons Foundation, Mark Rothko Foundation, Samuel Rubin Foundation, and The Wallace Funds; the American Express Company, AT&T Communications, Citibank, Consolidated Edison, EXXON, R.H. Macy Company, Mobil Foundation, Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, Paine Webber, and Phillip Morris, as well as numerous friends.
Artists Space is a member of the National Association of Artists Organizations (NAAO).
