HEY YOU, WANT THE MEMORY OF A LIFETIME?
SOFT SELL by Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio is located in the entry to the Rialto Theater. There you hear seductive phrases issuing forth from an enormous set of projected lips. Supposedly enticements-the lure of a peep show-both lips and words are in fact parodies of what's expected. The theater doors are a screen intervening between inside and out. Covered with liquid crystal panels, the doors-the "plane of enticement"go from transparent to opaque, drawing you in with glimpses of pleasures within, then blocking your view. You are captivated, but you will not be satisfied.
"A group of young men were drawn toward the lips, until they realized they weren't being offered what they thought." ("Glamour and Grim," Lisa Bornstein, Midtown Resident: July 23-August 6, 1993)
HEY YOU, WANNA BUY A NEW IDENTITY?
"It resembles a preview of a coming attraction, but here the preview is the show. And its message is that the show is a preiview. People come here to be teased. They expect to enter a state of desire unspoiled by mere gratification. Though the scarlet lips flirt with porn-shop imagery, the mouth speaks for the entire city: for Madison Avenue, for Wall Street, for the garment district, for an infernal machine that manufactures desires for people who have no patience with satisfactions." ("A Highbrow Peep Show on 42nd Street," Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times: August 1, 1993)
Artists' Biography
The team of Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio was formed in 1979 to work primarily in designing structures. Their work has been shown by Creative Time at ART ON THE BEACH and ART IN THE ANCHORAGE; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Wexner Art Center, Columbus, OH; and The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. They are currently exhibited in "Final Frontiers" at The New Museum for Contemporary Art, NY.
History of the Site
Links
