Magali Claude

December 8, 1997
Citywide
Photo courtesy of Creative Time

Fascinated by the distortion of information through the process of repetition, French artist Magali Claude crafted a series of apocalyptic environmental rumors. Distributed via matchbook covers and classified ads in the New York Times, each evocative phrase, such as “Another Will Consume All The Light,” “Darkness Will Close In On The Earth,” and “The Atmosphere Might Change,” is deliberately ambiguous in order to provoke multiple interpretations. The project also incorporated a phone number one could call to hear a hypnotic audioscape of rumors read by poet Nicole Blackman.

Claude’s strategy shares a kinship with the time-honored tradition of exchanging gossip over the back fence, but in a media savvy environment, the back fence expands to encompass phonelines, the Internet, and virtually any printable surface. Like the parlour game Telephone, with each social exchange Claude’s ominous rumors gathered momentum as they acquired misconstrued associations. Claude’s intent was to explore how these misinterpretations play into people’s fears and shape daily existence.

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Ming-Wei Lee, Plaintext Players, Chrysanne Stathacos

December 1, 1997
55 Broad Street; 11 West 53rd Street; Grand Central Terminal; and citywide

For the 9th annual Day With(out) Art (DWA), Creative Time commissioned three projects relating to the AIDS crisis in some way and documented them on it’s Day With(out) Art Web Action web site. Facilitating the communication of individuals as well as organizations, the site defied geographical boundaries and publicly united artists and activists around the grave impact of the AIDS pandemic. Like the prior year, participating web sites featured the Day With(out) Art logo on their homepage which was then hyperlinked to Creative Time’s site.

The website featured an online version of Chyrsanne Stathacos’s The Wish Machine project, as well as The Time Capsule, an interactive web site facilitated by artist Ming Wei Lee which documented personal accounts of the impact of the AIDS pandemic. Lee’s archive was constructed from interviews, photographs, and small objects donated by people at The Edward John Noble Education Center and The Museum of Modern Art. These articles were scanned or digitally photographed and then uploaded to the Time Capsule site, generating an invaluable collection of information about the experience of the AIDS pandemic at a particular moment in time.

The site also provided information about the Plaintext Players’s online performance of Silent Orpheus, an adaptation of the Greek myth.

All projects were produced by Creative Time in partnership with Visual AIDS, ArtAIDS (UK), The Museum of Modern Art, Harvard University, Thundergulch, and the Institute of Cultural Inquiry.

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Plaintext Players

December 1, 1997
55 Broad Street
Image courtesy of Plaintext Players

Silent Orpheus was a live internet performance by the Plaintext Players on the occasion of Day Without Art 1997. The event retold the Greek myth of Orpheus, legendary poet and singer, who must descend into Hell to bring his beloved Eurydice back from the dead. In Orpheus’s absence, all music and poetry vanish from Earth.

The performance took place on IDMOO, hosted by the School of Visual Arts, New York, and was simultaneously projected in the lobby of 55 Broad Street, New York as well as the Institute of Cultural Inquiry, Santa Monica. Following the performance, the Plaintext Players engaged in an online discussion with audience members.

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Chrysanne Stathacos

December 1-18, 1997
Grand Central Terminal
Photo © 1997 Cristian Alexa

Using the theory that the act of wishing often reveals one’s desire for transition, Grand Central Station emerged as a poignant site for artist Chrysanne Stathacos’s project The Wish Machine. Wrapped in the image of a wishing tree from India, the customized vending machine dispensed wish packets, little plastic baggies with a printed photo collage depicting a plant that evoked the essence of the wish and a small vial of the plant’s essential oil, extending the wishing ritual into a multisensory experience for the recipient. Intentionally located in busy Grand Central station, Stathacos’s wishes were offered with the intention to conjure the desires of the urban commuter–however restless or varied those might be. Stathacos’s project was commissioned in conjunction with the 1997 Day With(out) Art.