ABOUT FACE
Via the encyclopedic Weblog Green Cine Daily comes this link to an article in Slate about Harry Shearer’s video installation “Face Time” at the Conner Contemporary Gallery in Washington, D.C.
As the exhibiton’s curator, Welmoed Laanstra, writes, “Shearer, who has appeared in such films as Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind and who does the voice for many characters in The Simpsons (including Montgomery Burns), has an eye for contemporary absurdity. He is both commentator and artist, having written for Slate and having produced for 21 years a weekly radio show spoofing the news.
“ ‘Face Time’, a temporary installation pegged to the final weeks of a long and dramatic presidential campaign, will feature television footage of both presidential candidates, the vice presidential candidates, other political figures and media talking heads. Using video footage without any dialogue, Shearer will present all these figures in our national sandbox as artifacts. He will explore the artificiality of political communication. The installation will offer viewers the opportunity to ponder the manner in which politics and news are presented by the mass media and then consumed by individuals. The point will be to remove the viewer from the immediate media slipstream and suspend the from-them-to-you interaction in time.”
