In Sans Simon, Arcangel demonstrates another kind of do-it-yourself interaction with pop culture. For this editioned, single-channel video work, Arcangel sets a camera to record a television playing a consumer recording of Simon and Garfunkel's 1984 Central Park concert. Arcangel performs a "hands-on" or "handmade" intervention as he physically tries to obscure Paul Simon with his hands whenever he appears on the screen. The result is a document of Arcangel's performance and his obsessive if frustrated quest.

Says Arcangel of Sans Simon, "It's basically a recording of a performance I did in my living room. I put the camera in front of the TV and let the original DVD play and every time Paul Simon showed up I put my hand in front of him. It's just really a documentation of a performance. ÉIn the Sans Simon piece there's no technology, no magic, nothing, not even an edit that people can get stumbled by."

Return to Cory Arcangel Case Study