Kasper Kovitz / Group II, Apr 96 - Sept 96

FINAL PROJECTS

9/17/96 to 9/30/96

MAK Center for Art and Architecture L.A at the Schindler House, 835 North Kings Road, West Hollywood, CA

The residents joined with local colleagues to present an evening of festivities for the Final Projects exhibition entitled "Multi-Media Celebration." In the tradition of "happenings," this art event encompassed a range of simultaneous activities. In Gilbert Bretterbauer's house, poet Benjamin Weissman read from his work and artist Christiana Glidden created a light sculpture. Videos, slides and Super-8 films were continuously projected on screens hung from the roof of the Schindler House. Andrea Lenardin and food stylist Alison Attenborough created a buffet and music was provided by DJs Marnie Castor and Josh Berman.

Christoph Kasperkovitz described his work "God is a Butcher" as a "video-sculpture." This finely-crafted piece presented a contemporary interpretation of late medieval representations of the "dance of death," which were meditations on mortality. Here, three child mannequins were given horns which were reconstructed to represent different attitudes toward the inevitability of death: innocence, carpe diem ("live for today"), indifference, and religious ecstasy. The middle figure, which found religion, bore a video monitor in its head that screened a variety of American tele-evangelist preachers. Upon coming to the U.S., Kasperkovitz was fascinated by this salesman-like approach to spirituality.