Description

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Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is pleased to present a selection of works recently added to our distribution catalogue. The evening takes its title from Richard Serra's Paul Revere (1971), an exploration of communications theory taking its cue from Revere’s encoded lantern signals devised during the American revolution. This event also celebrates the introduction of Lynn Hershman Leeson’s video works into EAI’s distribution catalogue. Videos in this screening share an interest in mediation, semiotic play, and the political and historical role of documentation as artists experiment with film and video as tactics for collective exchange.

In this selection of videos, artists use their cameras to interrogate how technology reinforces collective and individual identities, and the position of the media consumer within American capitalism. Serra, in collaboration with Joan Jonas and adapting her performance Choreomania (1971), methodically examines the seemingly simple alert system described by Henry W. Longfellow’s phrase “one if by land, two if by sea,” exposing the complexities, disjunctures, and collective agreements latent within it. Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Commercial For Myself (1978) is an intervention into public broadcasting, introducing the artist to a broad television audience in the form of a commercial, likening her persona as an artist to an everyday commodity. Burt Barr similarly considers the role of the artist in consumer culture in With Special Thanks (1986), a fictional narrative describing the narrator’s comical year of international travel preceding the purchase of his current video recording setup with credit card rewards. Hershman Leeson’s Desire Inc. (1990) extends her work with televised advertisements—this time, depicting an unnamed seductress inviting viewers to call her. Hershman Leeson interviews respondents about their desire to meet the model under the guise of fantasy and the construction of womanhood as a commodity within American culture. Finally, Barbara Hammer’s Pictures 4 Barbara (1980), a 16mm epistolary film referencing the correspondence between Hammer and writer Barbara du Bois, depicts Barbara and Barbara’s connection as nurtured through shared polaroids and moving fragments of their lives.

An online, closed-captioned version of this program will be accessible for a limited time in March.

Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)’s venue is located at 264 Canal Street, 3W, near several Canal Street subway stations. Our floor is accessible by elevator (63" × 60" car, 31" door) and stairway. Due to the age and other characteristics of the building, our bathrooms are not ADA-accessible, though several such bathrooms are located nearby. If you have questions about access, please contact cstrange@eai.org in advance of the event.