Samaras: Kicking a Dead Apple

NEWSgrist Sunday, April 17, 2005
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2005/04/kicking_a_dead_.html
image source:
http://bopuc.levendis.com/photolog/entries/2004/09/21/002142.php
Samaras: Kicking a Dead Apple

*Probably the most grotesquely disingenuous show I've seen in a while
is **Lucas
Samaras**'s iMovie
workstations<http://www.pacewildenstein.com/jsp/PressReleaseDetail.jsp?page=
Type=exhibit&pressID=1066>now
up at
**Pace** in Chelsea. It basically takes the creative impulse of Web culture=

and freezes it (with a little help from Apple). Carol Kino talks about the=

old issue of tech obsolescence in connection to it; but the issue at hand I=

think is more how the gallery system manages to kill the art, and here we=

have the great creative power of digital technology frozen and revamped as=

an "unlimited edition" of high-design tombstones. After spending a day
gazing at mostly slickified, corporate, terminally inoffensive art in
gallery after gallery, this takes the cake. I actually find the Apple store=

to be more artful and in tune with the creative act.*

*from the press release:*
The *PhotoFlicks (iMovies) *and *PhotoFictions (A to Z) *installation in th=
e
two galleries will allow visitors to select and view 60 short films and
4,432 still images on individual computer monitors. Thirty-five Apple work=

stations, each of which replicate the computer in the artist's studio,
set-up the way the artist has it in his studio, will be on exhibit so
multiple visitors can view the work simultaneously […]

The origins of PhotoFlicks (iMovies) and PhotoFictions (A to Z) can also be=

traced back to the late 1950s and early 1960s when Samaras studied acting a=
t
the Stella Adler Conservatory and later participated in various Happenings=

with Jim Dine, Allan Kaprow, and Claes Oldenburg among others…
<<<<>>>>

*
This is most UNhappening happening in that case…*

*Aside from the "great artist's" heavy-handed attempt to co-opt a core
process and the juice of youth culture in the name of high art, it must be=

said that Samaras has made a career of producing somewhat perverse, even
sadistic works of art. With that in mind, this may be his greatest work
yet… *

*
via NYTimes:*
*DIRECTIONS | PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE*
*When the Work Is a
Workstation*<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/17/arts/design/17caro.html?page=
wanted=print&position=>
By CAROL KINO
Published: April 17, 2005
If you buy a work from Lucas Samaras's current show at the PaceWildenstein=

and Pace/MacGill galleries, you'll need $15,000 - and a small moving truck.=

For your money, you'll get not just 4,432 photographs and 60 movies, but
also the Mac Mini computer on which they're stored (as iPhoto and iMovie
files), an Apple Cinema HD display, an Ikea Hannes desk and two Design
Within Reach chairs.

It's just the latest step for Mr. Samaras, who has been a pioneer working i=
n
media as various as Polaroids, gold, yarn and film. *Each of the current
works comes with a certificate stipulating that it must be viewed in the
specified digital format on the specified equipment, and may not be
reproduced or distributed on the Internet. **{yeah right, tell me another=

one…} *There are 35 pieces available, and more can be made on demand. "We=

are choosing not to call it an unlimited edition," said Chris Harnden,
director of art and gallery services at PaceWildenstein, "but if every man,=

woman and child in America wanted one, we would make one and supply it."

But what will it mean for collectors when the Mac Mini and the software
become obsolete, or the components bite the dust? "Pace will always maintai=
n
an archive of the digital content itself," Mr. Harnden said. If replacement=

became necessary, "we would select with the artist or the artist's estate a=

suitable replacement in terms of hardware." And if Pace is no longer there

"That's a very interesting question," Mr. Harnden said.

Mr. Samaras took a more laissez-faire attitude. "My first impulse was to
show or to exhibit the work in the same format that I made it in, and
whenever you use sort of a new tool you have to live with its requirements,=
"
he said. And while the agreement with buyers prohibits distribution, he
said, he wouldn't be surprised, or even that concerned, if his images ended=

up on the Web: "If I'm making something, I'm making it for anybody who can=

receive it." **

Sunday, April 17, 2005 at 11:36 AM in Art
Exhibitions<http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/art_exhibitions/index.h=
tml>|
Permalink<http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2005/04/kicking_a_dead_.h=
tml>