EAI presents four works by legendary media collective Ant
Farm. Ant Farm specialized in their own unique brand of
live media intervention. Featuring footage of Ant Farm at
work, documents of their performances, and interviews with
the collective, their audiences, and accidental observers,
these works are the closest that we can come to actually
being at one of their Spectacles.
In Media Burn (1975-2003) and Cadillac Ranch
Show (1974-94), Ant Farm encourages the viewer to find
new uses for the automobile and to declare independence
from Television. The Eternal Frame (1975), in which
Ant Farm restages the infamous Zapruder film of John F.
Kennedy's assassination, is a dark examination of this iconic
event and the media. Finally, Inflatables Illustrated
(1971-2003) shows Ant Farm at their most utopian, experimenting
with DIY inflatable architecture in Ant Farm's version of
a How-To Video. Throughout the four pieces, Ant Farm suggests
that another, very different world can be built out of the
wreckage of consumer culture.
Thursdays, November 3, 10, & 17 First Seating: 7:30 pm Second Seating: 10:00 pm Admission: $7
Ant
Farm was an innovative countercultural collective
working in media, architecture and spectacle from the late
1960s through the 1970s. Their media events, site structures,
performances and videotapes merge an irreverent pop humor
with cultural and political critique. Founded in 1968 in
San Francisco by Chip Lord and Doug Michels as an alternative
architecture, graphic arts, and environmental design practice,
Ant Farm expanded to include Curtis Schreier and, at times,
Douglas Hurr and Hudson Marquez. Functioning as a self-proclaimed
"art agency that promotes ideas that have no commercial
potential, but which we think are important vehicles of
cultural introspection," Ant Farm was one of the most
influential of the early media-based collectives.
Ant Farm's media events and performances, which integrated
art into everyday life, were conceptual works that challenged
the symbols and ideologies of post-war American culture
and mass media. Conceived on a public scale, their projects
were distinguished by an ironic humor, an awareness of the
media's fascination with spectacle, and a postmodern use
of America's kitsch culture of automobiles and television.
Ant Farm's work is on permanent display at the Cadillac
Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. Their work has been shown at the
PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, NY; Kunsthalle Wien, Austria;
The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musee d'Art Moderne
et Contemporain, Strasbourg, France, and Kunsthaus Zurich,
Switzerland, among other venues. A retrospective of Ant
Farm's work, entitled Ant Farm 1968-1978, was organized
by the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, and
Pacific Film Archives, and opened in January 2004 at the
Berkeley Art Museum. The exhibition traveled to the Santa
Monica Museum of Art, CA, the Institute of Contemporary
Art, Philadelphia, the University of Houston, TX; Zentrum
fur Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany;
and is currently on view at the Yale University School of
Architecture Gallery until November 4, 2005.
For more information about Ant Farm please visit: www.eai.org.
Programmed by Josh Kline.
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Upcoming Programs:
December 2005: Tony Oursler's Synesthesia
Interviews on rock and art.
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About EAI
Founded in 1971, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is one of
the world's leading nonprofit resources for video art and
interactive media. EAI's core program is the international
distribution of a major collection of new and historical
media works by artists. EAI's programs include a preservation
program, viewing access, educational services, online resources,
and public programs such as exhibitions and lectures. The
Online Catalogue provides a comprehensive resource on the
175 artists and 3,000 works in the EAI collection, including
artists' biographies, descriptions of works, QuickTime excerpts,
research materials, Web projects, and online ordering.
Electronic Arts Intermix
535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10011
(212) 337-0680 tel
(212) 337-0679 fax
info@eai.org http://www.eai.org
