ARTISTS
Like Dracula dodging the Cross
鈥淭elevision is conversant on a million topics and broadcasts itself as an exquisite generalist, an encyclopedic skimmer that avoids specificity like Dracula dodging the Cross. It flaunts a fluency in more than a few languages and speaks in hundreds of voices, juggling gender and race like a spirit trying on bodies for size, like a manic quick-change artist on a binge.鈥濃�擝arbara Kruger, 鈥淪eptember 1989鈥� in Remote Control, The MIT Press, 1993 [1989], p. 48
Taken from artist Barbara Kruger鈥檚 column on television that was published regularly in Artforum, this excerpt shrewdly dissects television鈥檚 versatility (in contents, genres, and rhythms), a quality that is as much a strength as it is a flaw. TV, we are told, 鈥渁voids specificity like Dracula dodging the Cross鈥�. Through this visually evocative metaphor, Kruger describes the ever-changing flow of programs on TV, simultaneously revealingthe scope of its influence. When her text was published in the late 1980s, television鈥檚 reach seemed particularly tentacular鈥攚hether geographically, linguistically, or thematically鈥攎aking it an inexhaustible source for artists exploring the socio-political breadth of image-making, such as Kruger herself.
Today, television鈥檚 modes of production and reception have changed, even its physical form has been altered, slimmed, and flattened. The technology鈥檚 rapid change has instigated today鈥檚 digital screen-culture, yet analog television and its aesthetics persist as references, notably in the practices of artists born between the 1980s and late 1990s1. Like Dracula dodging the Cross gathers works by Mona Benyamin, Deniz Eroglu, Hilary Galbreaith, Nday茅 Kouagou, Rayane Mcirdi, Gaspar Willmann, and Hoy Cheong Wong鈥� seven artists who continue to interrogate TV with fascination, skepticism and nostalgia. They use, appropriate, and disturb TV鈥檚 functions, as well as its visual and discursive codes. These artists subvert the assumption that TV constitutes a 鈥渦niversal鈥� cultural reference, injecting linguistic, visual and musical elements that relate to specific cultural contexts, geographical or political positionings. Taking advantage of the immediacy of TV鈥檚 aesthetics and grammar, they weave within them tales of diasporic transmissions, alternatives and parodies to colonial histories, or reflections on misinformation and cultural appropriation. Disguised under TV鈥檚 format, these narratives rely on the imagery鈥檚 accessibility to produce a critical discourse, but one that is resolutely imbued with a sense of nostalgia towards a highly familiar object.
Recommended for you
鈥淭elevision is conversant on a million topics and broadcasts itself as an exquisite generalist, an encyclopedic skimmer that avoids specificity like Dracula dodging the Cross. It flaunts a fluency in more than a few languages and speaks in hundreds of voices, juggling gender and race like a spirit trying on bodies for size, like a manic quick-change artist on a binge.鈥濃�擝arbara Kruger, 鈥淪eptember 1989鈥� in Remote Control, The MIT Press, 1993 [1989], p. 48
Taken from artist Barbara Kruger鈥檚 column on television that was published regularly in Artforum, this excerpt shrewdly dissects television鈥檚 versatility (in contents, genres, and rhythms), a quality that is as much a strength as it is a flaw. TV, we are told, 鈥渁voids specificity like Dracula dodging the Cross鈥�. Through this visually evocative metaphor, Kruger describes the ever-changing flow of programs on TV, simultaneously revealingthe scope of its influence. When her text was published in the late 1980s, television鈥檚 reach seemed particularly tentacular鈥攚hether geographically, linguistically, or thematically鈥攎aking it an inexhaustible source for artists exploring the socio-political breadth of image-making, such as Kruger herself.
Today, television鈥檚 modes of production and reception have changed, even its physical form has been altered, slimmed, and flattened. The technology鈥檚 rapid change has instigated today鈥檚 digital screen-culture, yet analog television and its aesthetics persist as references, notably in the practices of artists born between the 1980s and late 1990s1. Like Dracula dodging the Cross gathers works by Mona Benyamin, Deniz Eroglu, Hilary Galbreaith, Nday茅 Kouagou, Rayane Mcirdi, Gaspar Willmann, and Hoy Cheong Wong鈥� seven artists who continue to interrogate TV with fascination, skepticism and nostalgia. They use, appropriate, and disturb TV鈥檚 functions, as well as its visual and discursive codes. These artists subvert the assumption that TV constitutes a 鈥渦niversal鈥� cultural reference, injecting linguistic, visual and musical elements that relate to specific cultural contexts, geographical or political positionings. Taking advantage of the immediacy of TV鈥檚 aesthetics and grammar, they weave within them tales of diasporic transmissions, alternatives and parodies to colonial histories, or reflections on misinformation and cultural appropriation. Disguised under TV鈥檚 format, these narratives rely on the imagery鈥檚 accessibility to produce a critical discourse, but one that is resolutely imbued with a sense of nostalgia towards a highly familiar object.
What's on nearby
