ARTLURKER
A MIAMI BASED CONTEMPORARY ART
NEWSLETTER / BLOG
Jet
Set Saturdays: Dan Finsel at Parker Jones
In 1976, there came an idolatrous poster. Not just any idol,
but the one many a young man would intently observe when his parents went out
for dinner. With blond tresses, white perfect teeth, and nipples erect, the
Farrah Fawcett red swimsuit poster became the image of choice for teenage
predecessors to Generation X. Dan Finsel’s détournement, a new installment to
his video series I Would Love
Farrah, Farrah, Farrah…that he’s entitled I Could Be Anybody. I Could Be
Somebody re-packages
the poster, conversations Ms. Fawcett had on her deathbed, and an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 where Brenda Walsh thinks she might
have cancer. The 20 minute video, shot in the artist’s Chinatown studio, finds
the artist in seemingly uncomfortable outfits – a red one-piece swimsuit, a too
large white oxford, a blond wig and tennis dress, and red Vuarnet-style glasses
chipped and scratched from years of use. Throughout the piece, where Finsel is
seen a front of green screen, one can detect the reflection of a Dan
Flavin-esque sculpture in his glasses. The installation at Parker Jones that
closes tomorrow (hurry, hurry!) also has a 54 x 96 inch fluorescent light
sculpture called Untitled (To
Farrah), where the artist riffs on the title Flavin himself would have
given the piece had he made it for theCharlie’s Angels star, reifying the works of the
Minimalist icon while referring to filmic vernacular via the 16:9 ratio of its
proportions.
Dan Finsel, I Would Love Farrah, Farrah,
Farrah (I), 2009
[still], HD video, 20:24, Ed. 3 + 1 AP
.
Gallery says:
“The totality of Dan Finsel’s work is driven by a central character; one
that he constructed in the Fall of 2008, and one in which he continues to embody
through performance, video, and various paraphernalia. This personality is an
amalgamation of various mediaconstructed subjectivities, specifically those
from popular film and television. Finsel adopts these roles and their
associated narratives through the character of a schizophrenic and
self-obsessed man-child. Emotionally and ethically educated through the
chronicles of coming-of-age teenage melodramas, “Finsel” exists within a
conflation between the logic of a Peewee Herman’s Playhouse and Andy Kaufman,
reality TV and filmed studio performance art…
Dan Finsel, I Would Love Farrah, Farrah,
Farrah (I), 2009
[still], HD video, 20:24, Ed. 3 + 1 AP
.
Shiny white
patent vinyl flooring is installed in the gallery — the kind of substructure
employed for sexy rap music videos and glam-y fashion spreads — and the
theatricality of the floor and fluorescent lighting juxtaposed by the quirky,
ironic video is unnerving. Using Stanislavsky acting techniques, “Finsel”
repeats lines over and over and over into his iPhone: “If I keep talking I’ll
cry,” and “I’m a private person, I’m shy about people knowing things…” The
repetition creates an awkward, almost cloying presence, one that drags the
viewer in and then keeps her there through angst-riddled reiteration. The
cyclical nature and cadence of the piece allows one to see Finsel’s progression/regression
of emotions, a process where the subject re-structuralizes television as he
morphs into different incarnations of the character and his psychology. Beads
of sweat on the artist’s forehead mark his torment, and the video ends with him
giddily taking off the white dress to reveal that iconic red tank suit.
Genitals slightly exposed, wig askew, and posed like Farrah did back in the
day, Dan Finsel’s dérive unsettles the viewer just enough to elicit a similar
sort of teenage anxiety as one might feel if left alone in a room with a
certain poster for an extremely long time.
Dan Finsel, Untitled
(To Farrah), 2009. Single tube fluorescent
lights, 54 x 96 inches.
Parker Jones is located at 510 Bernard Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
For more information please visit www.parkerjonesgallery.com
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