The Thing @ White Slab Palace presents
Robert Boyd: Single-Channel
White Slab Palace 77 Delancey St., NYC 10002 (South East corner of Delancey and Allen St.) Tuesday October 4, 2011, 8pm
The Thing @ White Slab Palace presents a selection of Robert Boyd’s recent single channel videos. Included in the screening will be never-before-seen, single-channel versions from his new series of video installations collectively entitled, TOMORROW PEOPLE, as well as the single-channel mix of Xanadu. This will be the first time this version of Xanadu has been shown outside of the Sundance Film Festival, where it was an Official Selection in 2008.
SCREENING: TIMETRAVEL_0, In Progress, 15min. *The video will be shown in installation form shortly before the screening. “TimeTravel_0” cinematically reinterprets Online posts culled from archived logs of Internet chat rooms shortly after the turn of the new millennium, to present a textual narrative about a gay visitor from the future. The work stages a one-sided dialogue as only the protagonist’s writings are shown. By leaving viewers to imagine the forum members’ questions and responses, the work engages them as participants in the narrative as it unfolds.
XANADU, 2006, 28min. Culled from hundreds of hours of archival footage including that of doomsday cults, iconic political figures and global fundamentalist movements, the videos that comprise Robert Boyd’s “Xanadu,” tweak, condense, and re-frame modern events into seconds-long image bites, representing a history of apocalyptic thought as a series of MTV-style music videos. In Order: Heaven’s Little Helper (2005), Patriot Act (2004), Judgment Day (2006), Xanadu (2006), Exit Strategy (2005).
TOMORROW PEOPLE, In Progress, 32min. In an era uncertain of its outcome, does dreaming of the future help us create a better world - or is it a reactionary escapism we have devised to alleviate nervous fears regarding a current global state of affairs? Videos from Robert Boyd's TOMORROW PEOPLE, explore the role that fantasy plays in human self-determination. Taking its title from a children's science-fiction drama created in the 70s for British television, TOMORROW PEOPLE combines archival footage from an array of sources that, when viewed together, forms a snapshot of the social landscape of our time. This footage includes excerpts from science-fiction dramas, news reports on historic and contemporary political events, docudramas about UFOs, the paranormal and conspiracy theories - as well as excerpts from educational programming related to String Theory and Time Travel. In Order: TOMORROW PEOPLE Trailer (2008), Conspiracy Theory (2008), The Man Who Fell To Earth (2009), Autumn Changes (2010).
ROBERT BOYD is an interdisciplinary artist working in the areas of video installation, photography and sculpture. His work has recently been presented at C/O Berlin, Berlin (2011); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2010); Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong (2009); Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT (2008); MoMA/PS1, LIC, NY (2008); Pinchuk ArtCentre, Kiev, Ukraine (2008); Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN (2007); Context Galleries, Derry (2007); Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (2007); and Participant Inc, New York (2006). His work is included in several public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création in Paris.