Bourgeois Media Lunch (2008), piece/installation hybrid, various media formats (compact discs, videocassettes, floppy disks, 8-track cassettes, audio cassettes & cases, vinyl record), wood, white sheet, small table, resin. 76 x 91 x 28 cm
Installed at ellO gallery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA. April 2008.
This is a piece which can be viewed in a couple of ways. The original goal was to have a situation where an artist is showing off a sampling of his works, which are re-appropriated photos in “elaborate” frames (in fact, these disks originate from my own collection of old floppy disks from the late 1990’s. The images were adhered to the disks originally during that time). Then, after seeing the final set-up and working with the double entendre in the title, I realized one could see the set-up as a television news channel executive watching over various grim news from other stations while eating neo-bourgeois food, like over-conceptualized tapas or pricey bastardized tapenades. It also may go a few other directions. The official 'piece' is also movable (except for the underlying cassette cases), so you can re-arrange the lunch meeting when you get tired of looking at it in the same context. The installation of the piece in the gallery featured a special bonus of all the leftover bits from the media parts I extracted, hiding below the media lunch, ignored by the participant(s).