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Mediatheque
Dan Graham 丹．格雷姆
Performer/Audience/Mirror 表演者／觀眾／鏡
1975
Performer/Audience/Mirror requires the audience to see itself as an audience, subjecting them to the kind of close looking usually reserved for artworks themselves. In this performance, filmed in a San Francisco studio, Dan Graham stands facing an audience (who are seated on the floor and reflected in a mirrored wall behind him) and delivers a steady stream-of-consciousness monologue describing their behaviour, as well as his own actions and bodily sensations. Partway through, he turns to look in the mirror and continues to describe the reflected audience. As he speaks, Graham literalises the idea of the artist as an observer of humanity—and the notion of art as humanity’s mirror. But, as a performance, the work is bound to a specific time, place, and group of people.
Graham’s work from the 1970s often takes a critical position on American culture, especially what he saw as a growing sense of sameness caused by surburban gentrification and mass media. His early photography and video works contain self-conscious reflections on the ways that media and entertainment shape our perceptions and social relations.
Graham’s work from the 1970s often takes a critical position on American culture, especially what he saw as a growing sense of sameness caused by surburban gentrification and mass media. His early photography and video works contain self-conscious reflections on the ways that media and entertainment shape our perceptions and social relations.
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