roswell
artist-in-residence program
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David Politzer's video works are frankly intimate,
straightforward, and at times hilarious. The vagaries of
contemporary social interaction and the overlooked questions they pose, form the point of departure for this Politzer develops images of himself speaking on a monitor
that he may or may not interact with. The talking head within the video
acts as an alter ego for the artist, with a kind of innocent and
detached irony. |
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With the installation piece, Hanging Baggage, Politzer creates two alter egos that duel for our attention on opposing, outdated or obsolete television sets, suspended by a series of pulleys and ropes. Under obvious gravitational stress, the two tubes examine duel stains in American popular culture. A maudlin loser, confessing al,l in a "reality" television styled piece competes with a self-help, get-rich-quick, esteem building huckster's infomercial who serves as his doppelganger. Nearly unrecognizably the same person, the viewer is left to wonder if the competing personalities represent a progression over time or merely two sides of America's neurotic obsession with success and an almost prurient interest in the mundane minutia of personal failure. |
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In Rio Macho, Politzer tackles the manly virtues associated with the American West while examining modern society's inability to differentiate between the actual historical West and the long list of Hollywood Westerns that have shaped the myth. In an off-beat variation of the "buddy picture", Politzer and his video partner visit the scenic splendors of Monument Valley, riff on John Ford and John Wayne films, reflect on horsemanship and finally share a duet around the ol' campfire. |
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Politzer manages to
make video art that is both engaging and substantive without resorting
to operatic excess, tedium, rarefied intellectualism or the post-modern
polemics that often plague the medium. He happily acknowledges the
connection between movies, television and video. He is not interested in
distancing himself from videos popular predecessors, but rather he uses
video as a window within a window, to reveal these popular mediums'
inherent weaknesses and our own addiction to them. Stephen Fleming, 2008
VIEW DAVID'S BLOG ABOUT HIS Gift of Time.
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"Study
for The Weight", |
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