Andrea Fraser "Projection"
Petzel Gallery
This event has ended.
Andrea Fraser's installation consists of two video projections at opposite ends of a long, narrow, darkened room. Both projections feature the same performer in the same clothing sitting in the same chair in a seamless black space. The images alternate through 12 short monologues, with the image on one wall fading to black as the next scene begins on the opposite wall, and then fading up again as that monologue comes to a close. In each image, the performer addresses the camera directly, creating the effect of addressing both the image on the opposite wall and the viewer in the middle of the room. The program of scenes loops seamlessly, with no definite beginning or end.
Projection is based on video recordings of intensive psychoanalytic consultations in which Fraser participated as a patient. Fraser transcribed these video recordings, separated the two sides of the dialog and edited the transcripts down into two individual scripts, each composed of six short monologs in the form of one-sided dialogs. This process also involved adapting the dialog to the gallery space by substituting the present for the past tense and second for third person pronouns, as well as replacing specific nouns and proper names with shifting indexical and demonstrative terms. Fraser then performed these scripts for video, addressing the camera directly. These recordings are projected life-size in an alternating sequence on opposite sides of the gallery, placing the viewer in the position of the addressee and object—or, perhaps, the screen—of each projection. Through this experience, Fraser aims to make explicit some of the latent psychological projections that inevitably structure the relations between artists and art works and their viewers.
Media
Schedule
from May 09, 2009 to June 13, 2009