We interrupt this Program

I attended an exhibition entitled We interrupt this Program at The Mercer Union Art Gallery at Bloor and Lansdowne, Toronto. It was Curated by Sarah Robayo Sheridan with Steven Leiber and Ted Purves. Upon entrance to the exhibit one witnesses a room, which appears to be displaying documents throughout a winding table. Under the class displayed in many editions of “ArtForm” and other popular art publications. The exhibit was dedicated to presenting the personal ways in which artists used media to advertise themselves pre-internet. It took form in many gorilla adds in Artform depicting artist as products. It contained work from Lynda Benglis, Chris Burden, Herman de Vries, Jan Dibbets, Yoko Ono, and multiple other artists. It also contained several television sets, played TV spots artist had purchased to show their work.

I thoroughly enjoyed some of the video pieces, and the concept behind buying television time to use as your own personal gallery space is one I really appreciate. It is a very forceful way to get ones work displayed. Although the scenario these pieces were placed in I found to be out of context with their original intent. The strength of the art presented in this exhibit it based on their gorilla like tactic to be displayed, Interrupting television spots, or thrown in art magazines. Displaying them in a gallery is beneficial for the public to access these pieces, but robs the viewer of the shock, or confusion of what they are watching.

Chris burden’s video piece through the night softly is a good example. The beautiful piece, one of my personally favorites of the exhibition depicts Chris Burden crawling in his underwear in the dark over broken glass. The image is unrecognizable till about 50 seconds in when you can make an outline of a body crawling. The viewer witnessing this piece in a gallery is a completely different experience then having it appear on the television late at night. The understanding of what you are watching is completely different depending on the environment; the confusion that would emerge if you were at home watching does not take place to the same extent as when in the gallery. The same applies for the magazines ads; they’re shocking and stand out because they are next to articles and advertisements of existing products, not artists. I feel the reaction of flipping through a magazine and coming upon the add is different then seeing each add laid out next to each other and not being able to see their juxtaposition against the other adds and articles.

This fact put aside I really enjoyed the exhibit, it is a good documentation of performance art in an era that most of us in the class don’t fully comprehend, a time before the Internet.