Past Future Split Attention, 1972

Dan Graham

The exhibition presents Graham’s photographic, video and audio documentation of his seminal early performances such as Like (1969), Lax / Relax (1969-1995), Past Future Split Attention (1972), Performer Audience Mirror (1975) and Death By Chocolate (1986-2005).

Those pieces reveal Dan Graham’s dedication to examine social codes, group behaviour and established modes of perception. For example, the performance Performer Audience Mirror (1975) is a phenomenological inquiry into the audience/performer relationship and the notion of subjectivity/objectivity. Graham stands in front of a mirrored wall facing a seated audience; he describes the audience’s movements and what they signify. He then turns and describes himself and the audience in the mirror.

Dan Graham writes:

Through the use of the mirror the audience is able to instantaneously perceive itself as a public mass (as a unity), offsetting its definition by the performer (‘s discourse). The audience sees itself reflected by the mirror instantly while the performer’s comments are slightly delayed. First, a person in the audience sees himself ‘objectively’ (‘subjectively’) perceived by himself, next he hears himself described ‘objectively’ (‘subjectively’) in terms of the performer’s perception.

Death by Chocolate (1986-2005) draws on nearly twenty years’ worth of footage shot in the bizarre yet familiar arena of the shopping mall. The resulting work provides a coldly beautiful view of mall culture: its architecture, its consumer public and its unique aesthetic world. This work also provides a corollary to Graham’s own prodigious writings and projects on the public spaces of corporate capitalism.

March 17 – May 7, 2011