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ART 21: ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: CONSUMPTION {EPISODE #4} (TV)

Summary

One in this series which focuses on contemporary art and artists in the United States. This episode highlights the abstract theme of consumption in modern art. Michael Ray Charles paints art revolving around racial issues, using images of figures in blackface as a reminder of racial tensions in the past. He uses his art as a statement on Americanism, such as a display involving figurines of racial caricatures being substituted for stars on the American flag, which earned Charles a great deal of controversy. He searches for relations between racist imagery and that of ancient works of art, particularly the Hellenistic period. He displays a work in progress, “Triptych,” which illustrates this concept, with an painting inspired by Greco-Roman pottery of an African juxtaposed with art depicting modern racial views. He discusses how early American advertising often employed racist imagery, and how it disseminated throughout society, noting modern examples such as children’s action figures with similar implications. His latest series is a commentary on the relationship between minstrelsy and the evolution of modern pop culture. Matthew Barney is a sculptor and filmmaker who is known for his non-chronologically ordered “Cremaster” series of films, starting in 1993. The films feature highly bizarre, abstract imagery, often replete with highly complex visual elements. On location at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga, New York, Barney explains that the series is named after a muscle in male human genitalia, and is used as the point of inspiration for the films’ content. He shoots a scene meant to evoke “zombie movies,” with riders directing the course of horses made to appear dead and decomposing. They discuss the extensive makeup and prosthetic effects in the films, such as the spandex suits devised for the horses. He also films at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, where Barney stars in a scene in extensive makeup to give him an otherworldly appearance, making it seem that his lips have been cut open. The story behind the scene involves a conflict between a stonemason union and a metalworker union, featuring sculptor Richard Serra as the metalworker union chief. The central themes of the films involved the physicality of violence and how that translates to a visual, kinetic form. Andrea Zittel is a sculptor inspired by the design of breeding units for animals such as chickens, creating enclosures and displays embodying the same basic design philosophy. She discusses her thoughts on how her experiences has shaped her displays, which have total functionality as an “all-in-one” living space. She walks about her house, discussing the artistic work which went into designing all of its elements and aspects. Her “Uniform Project” involves experimenting with wearing the same outfit for a period of several months at a time; she talks about its social implications. Another of her works in progress, “Pocket Property,” is to be a 50-foot long floating island/vehicle made out of concrete; she plans to live on the island for a month, and talks about her desire to be autonomous and her fear of isolation, as well as the intangible concepts she hopes to express. Artist Mel Chin discusses an incident on Devil’s Night wherein arsonists burned down several homes in Detroit. Chin uses the burned-out remnants of houses as components of his project SPAWN, or Special Projects Agriculture Worms Neighborhoods, which hopes to repurpose these homes as worm farms, putting the entire house on a pivot to reveal the worm enclosure beneath. He also created a video game called KNOWMAD, wherein the player explores environments based on the designs of tribal rugs from vanishing cultures in Turkey. He hopes to educate people about these cultures through an interactive medium. Another of his works, “Revival Field” in Minnesota, involves taking a small plot of land infested with toxins and slowly creating a working ecology out of it using specialized plants called “hyperaccumulators” to extract heavy metal particulates in soil and make it suitable for regrowth. The plants can be burned in special “revival furnaces” to produce high-grade metal. He notes that despite the consumerism of modern times, art continues to prosper and inspire as it always has.

Details

  • NETWORK: PBS
  • DATE: September 28, 2001 10:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:56:46
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:75360
  • GENRE: Arts documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Arts documentaries
  • SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 2001-
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Susan Sollins … Executive Producer, Created by
  • Susan Dowling … Executive Producer, Created by
  • Eve-Laure Moros Ortega … Producer
  • Manuel Pellicer … Producer
  • Kathleen Pellicer … Producer
  • Wes Sandel … Producer
  • Migs Wright … Associate Producer
  • Deborah Shaffer … Director
  • James Harithas … Director
  • Helen Nagge … Director
  • Spontaneous Combustion … Animation
  • Quinn Latimer … Researcher
  • Wesley Miller … Researcher
  • Peter Foley … Composer
  • John McEnroe … Host
  • Barbara Kruger … Host
  • Michael Ray Charles … Interviewee
  • Matthew Barney … Interviewee
  • Andrea Zittel … Interviewee
  • Mel Chin … Interviewee
  • Chelsea Romersa … Interviewee
  • Richard Serra … Interviewee
  • Frank McMahon … Interviewee
  • Gabe Bartalos … Interviewee
  • Robert Barney … Interviewee
  • Austin Thomas … Interviewee
  • Bubba Crutchfield … Cast