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The New Normal

Presented by DiverseWorks Art Space at DiverseWorks ArtSpace

January 15-February 20, 2010

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DiverseWorks is proud to present The New Normal, an exhibition that brings together 13 artists who use private information as raw material and subject matter. Each of the works in the exhibition offers access to the private sphere of the artists themselves, of strangers, and of public officials. The works take diverse forms—video, websites, novellas, found objects, and photographs—to question the forced and voluntary confessions that make the private sphere visible to the public eye. Curated by Michael Connor; Co-organized by iCI (Independent Curators International), New York,and Artists Space, New York, and circulated by iCI.

The New Normal features Sophie Calle, Mohamed Camara, Hasan Elahi, Eyebeam R & D/ Jonah Peretti & Michael Frumin, Kota Ezawa, Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, Guthrie Lonergan, Jill Magid, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Trevor Paglen, Corinna Schnitt, Thomson & Craighead, and Sharif Waked and is on view January 15 through February 20, 2010 in the DiverseWorks Main Gallery. The opening reception is Friday, January 15, from 6:00 to 8:00PM and runs in conjunction with flickerlounge: 35 MM, a collection of video works by Robert Flowers and co-presented by Aurora Picture Show.

The concept of privacy is widely invoked, but difficult to define. The private sphere, encompassing domestic spaces, bodies, thoughts, and behaviors, are rendered inaccessible to the public eye by legal, social and physical boundaries. The boundaries that separate public from private—like wearing clothing—are so much a part of the fabric of everyday life that they only become visible when they shift. Privacy, to put it bluntly, captures our attention only when it is under threat.

Today, privacy faces a wide range of threats. In the wake of 9/11, the specter of terrorism was used to justify an expansion of law enforcement powers in the US and around the world. This time of heightened surveillance, characterized by luggage searches and wiretaps, was dubbed 'the new normal' by United States Vice President Dick Cheney.

Alongside these political shifts, changing technologies and social attitudes have had a no less profound impact on the private sphere. The most shocking images of criminal behavior this decade were captured not on official surveillance cameras, but on the camera phone of a soldier stationed in Abu Ghraib. Likewise, much of the personal information that is collected online is offered voluntarily. Users of websites like Amazon.com sacrifice personal information for the sake of convenience, while users of websites like MySpace and Facebook offer tidbits about themselves as a way of expressing their identity. The artists make visible the conditions behind this new social reality. In a changing political and technological environment, the private sphere has never been less private. But the news is not all bad.

Our story begins in Florida, shortly after 9/11. The owner of a storage facility there alerted law enforcement officials that a Middle Eastern man had left explosives in a locker and fled the area. The man was Hasan Elahi. Elahi, an American artist born in Bangladesh, subsequently found himself the subject of a six-month investigation by the FBI, punctuated by a number of lengthy interrogations. Although Elahi was ultimately cleared of any wrong-doing, the experience became the basis of an ongoing process-oriented artwork. At any given moment, Elahi’s website displays his geographic location, recent photographs of his immediate surroundings, credit card activity and telephone calls. It’s a catchall digital alibi. For this exhibition, Elahi will present this record of his daily life as a video triptych. Elahi describes the project as “aggressive compliance,” using voluntary disclosure of personal information as a tactic for political critique and self-protection.

Jill Magid's project, Lincoln Ocean Victor Eddy, (2007) begins with a similar eagerness to provide personal information to law enforcement: “Last winter I came back to New York City after living five years abroad. I rented an apartment in Brooklyn and took the subway often. Everyone is in transit, except the officers. I recently approached one and asked him to search me.”

The officer, whose job is to watch the cameras and people on New York transit, refused that request, but he allowed Magid to join him on his next shift. Magid's offer became the basis for an unlikely intimacy between an overworked, conservative cop and a liberal artist. The officer was flattered, but suspicious of her interest in him—wondering, at times, if she might be a terrorist. Their relationship culminated when Magid invited the officer to visit Taiwan to participate in an exhibition. He ultimately declined: he never sleeps anywhere besides his own bedroom in Staten Island, where he keeps a loaded gun under the bed. Instead, Magid recreated this private space in the gallery. Throughout the course of the show, the room stood ready to receive her officer if he should have a change of heart. In The New Normal, the story of their friendship will be told through a series of photographs and artifacts: an image of Magid wearing the officer's uniform; a page from his police notebook. A novella written by Magid about this relationship will be available for viewers to read in the gallery.

Magid's project re-imagines the relationship between the individual and the surveillance state as a romantic adventure. In romance, unlike surveillance, the exchange of personal information is a two-way process. In Lincoln Ocean Victor Eddy, (2007) Magid and the officer cultivate intimacy through the exchange of information about themselves, allowing one another access to their thoughts and histories. Several other works in the exhibition consider situations in which the disclosure of information is decidedly one way.

These works include Sharif Waked's Chic Point, (2003). This single-channel video work begins with a series of images of haute-couture men's fashion: shirts and jackets pulled apart to reveal the body underneath. Following this montage, the artist reveals the inspiration for his work: photographs he has taken at Israeli security checkpoints, showing Palestinian men forced to disrobe as part of security procedures.

In Jennifer and Kevin McCoy's Vice Presidential Downtime Requirements (formerly titled Band Rider Series: Dick Cheney), (2008) this one-way exchange of information is inverted: it is a government official who becomes the subject of an invasion of privacy. The piece is part of a series of works by the McCoys based on rider agreements, contracts stipulating the hospitality needs of touring artists, speakers and musicians. These rider agreements are often leaked online through websites like the infamous thesmokinggun.com. Using rider agreements stolen from bands like Guns N’ Roses, the McCoys assemble the required foodstuffs and niceties as ready-made collections for gallery display: pizza, beer, CDs, fruit, flowers. Dick Cheney's rider agreement—used when he delivers lectures and makes public appearances—forms the basis of this work. In comparison to Guns N’ Roses, his requests are spartan. Decaf coffee, diet caffeine-free Sprite, a queen-sized bed, and a television tuned to Fox News form the extent of his personal needs. These items are assembled in the gallery, along with a copy of the stolen rider agreement.

The Vice Presidential Downtime Requirements reflects the free availability of personal data on the Internet. From public records to consumer habits, private information is freely shared and exchanged online, and few are exempt—least of all high-ranking public officials. The web allows private information to be circulated more widely than ever, and it allows new kinds of private information to be created. Web searches are a good example of the latter. In 2006, AOL released information on the searching habits of 650,000 anonymous users, thinking that withholding their names was an adequate protection of their privacy. Using only an individual's searching habits, journalists were able to identify and locate a number of these users, triggering a scandal. The artists Thomson & Craighead make public the semi-private behavior of Internet searching in the work Beacon, (2007), which lists web searches harvested from search engines around the world, shown in real time. The hypnotic texts range from the banal ('tire inflation') to the absurd ('flowers that start with a b'). An online version can be seen at http://www.automatedbeacon.net.

The New Normal creates a sense that access to private information is a kind of currency. The exchange of this currency is growing and evolving in bewildering ways. We all have a stake in this exchange: we may find it frightening or fascinating, but we are inescapably complicit.

About Michel Connor, Curator of The New Normal
Michael Connor is a freelance writer and curator based in New York. Formerly the Head of Exhibitions at the British Film Institute, he developed the BFI Southbank Gallery, a space dedicated to exhibitions of artists' work with film, video and new media. From 2002 to 2005, Connor worked as a curator at FACT in Liverpool. He has also curated independent projects for such organizations as Futuresonic (Manchester), Sonar (Barcelona), and Art in General (New York).

The New Normal premiered at Artists Space in New York on April 25, 2008 and has traveled to Huarte Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Huarte, Spain, July 4 – September 28, 2008; The Decker Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, November 6 – December 19, 2008; the Bureau for Open Culture, Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, Ohio, February 25 – April 25, 2009; Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, California, August 25 – October 19, 2009; DiverseWorks Art Space, Houston, Texas, January 15 – February 20, 2010 and will travel to the Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, April 9 – July 4, 2010.

About DiverseWorks Art Space
Known for its groundbreaking artistic and education programs, DiverseWorks is one of the premiere contemporary arts centers in the United States. For more than two decades, DiverseWorks has been a hub for the presentation of daring and innovative work, commissioning major artistic projects in all disciplines, and an advocate for artists worldwide. Founded by artists for artists, DiverseWorks continues its commitment to bold artistic exploration, creative risk-taking, and building audiences for contemporary art.

About iCI (Independent Curators International)
Founded in 1975, iCI is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art through traveling exhibitions and other activities that reach a diverse national and international audience. Collaborating with a wide range of eminent curators, iCI develops innovative traveling exhibitions, accompanied by catalogues and other educational materials, to introduce and document challenging new work in all mediums by younger as well as more established artists from the United States and abroad. The New Normal is a traveling exhibition co-organized by iCI (Independent Curators International), New York, and Artists Space, New York, and circulated by iCI. The guest curator for the exhibition is Michael Connor. The exhibition, tour, and catalogue are made possible, in part, with funding to iCI from The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the iCI independents, The Cowles Charitable Trust, and The Overbrook Foundation; and to Artists Space from the Starry Night Fund of the Tides Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the David S. Howe Foundation, the John S. Johnson and Susan R. Short Foundation, Yvon Lambert, the supporters of the Artists Space Publications Program, and the British Council.

Pictured Above: Koto Ezawa (US), detail of Still from Home Video II, Medium: Single‐channel video without sound, Year: 2007, Length: 5 mins., Credit: Courtesy of the Artist and Murray Guy, New York. (full image below).

Pictured Below:

Image: 1
Artist: Corinna Schnitt (Germany),  Title: Still from Once Upon a Time, Medium: Single‐channel video with sound,  Year: 2005,  Size: 25 mins,  Credit: Courtesy Gallery Olaf Stueber, Berlin.

Image: 2
Artist: Guthrie Lonergan (US),  Title: Still from MySpace Intro Playlist,  Medium: Two single‐channel videos with sound,  Year: 2006,  Length: 8 mins., 13 seconds,  Credit: Courtesy of the Artist.

Image: 3
Artist: Koto Ezawa (US),  Title: Still from Home Video II,  Medium: Single‐channel video without sound,  Year: 2007,  Length: 5 mins.,
Credit: Courtesy of the Artist and Murray Guy, New York. 

Image: 4
Artist: Miranda July and Harrel Fletcher (US),  Title: Learing to Love You More (Assignment 50: Take a flash photo under your bed), Medium: Color photographs printed from Internet project with text labels,  Year: 2005,  Length: 4 x 6 in. (10.2 x 15.2cm),  Credit: Courtesy of the artists. 

Image: 5
Artist: Jennifer and Kevin McCoy (US),  Title: Vice Presidential Downtime Requirements (formerly titled Band Rider Series: Dick Cheney), Medium: Installation with text and store‐bought products,  Year: 2008,  Size: Dimensions variable,  Credit: Courtesy Postmasters Gallery, New York.

Image: 6
Artist: Hasan Elahi (US),  Title: Tracking Transience: Position and Tracking Transience: Evidence,  Medium: Two‐channel video without sound and single‐channel video without sound,  Year: 2007,  Credit: Collection of the Artist.

Image: 7
Artist: Jill Magid (US/ The Netherlands),  Title: Lincoln Ocean Victor Eddy,  Medium: Single‐channel video without sound, three Chromogenic prints, book, stand‐in bullet in bulletproof vitrine,  Year: 2006‐2007,  Size: Vitrine: 12 x 12 in.; prints: 21 7/8 x 27 3/8 in. ; 21 7/8 x 32 3/8 in. ; 33 ½ x 47 in.,  Credit: Courtesy Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York.

Image: 8
Artist: Sharif Waked (Palestine),  Title: Chic Point,  Medium: Single‐channel video with sound,  Year: 2003,  Length: 5 mins., 10 secs.,  Credit: Collection of the Artist.

Image: 9
Artist: Thomson & Craighead (UK),  Title: Beacon,  Medium: Data projection with real‐time Web connection,  Year: 2007,  Size: Dimensions Variable, Credit: Collection of the artist.

Image: 10
Artist: Trevor Paglen (US),  Title: Six C.I.A. Officers Wanted in Connection with the Abduction of Abu Omar from Milan, Italy,  Medium: Six inkjet prints,  Year: 2007,  Size: Each, 14 5/8 x 14 5/8 in. (37/1 x 37.1 cm), framed,  Credit: Courtesy of the Artist and Bellwether Gallery, New York.