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Les Levine
Deep Gossip &
I Am Not Blind
May 3 – May 31, 1980
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| Downtown Gallery |
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Installation view
Deep Gossip, 1979
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Installation view
Deep Gossip, 1979
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Installation view
Deep Gossip, 1979
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Installation view
Deep Gossip, 1979
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Installation view
I Am Not Blind, 1976 |
Installation view
I Am Not Blind, 1976 |
Click here for a PDF version of the following Press Release. |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 24, 1980
LES LEVINE
I Am Not Blind, 1976
An information environment about unsigned people
Deep Gossip, 1979
A video novel
May 3-May 31
Les Levine will present two major works of media sculpture, I Am Not Blind, an information environment about unsigned people and Deep Gossip, a video novel, a sculptural installation about the strategies and relationships of young artists.
I Am Not Blind was produced in 1976 for the Lions Gallery of the Senses at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT. Since then, it has been shown in several museums both in the United States and in Europe. This is the first presentation of I Am Not Blind in New York. I Am Not Blind consists of 9 color portraits of unsighted people who were interviewed by Les Levine in 1976, four hours of videotapes of those interviewed, and a Braille book.
James Elliot states in his introduction to the exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum: "I Am Not Blind illuminates the inner experiences of blindness through the responses of unsighted people to the perceptive inquiry of the artist. Through this exhibition it is hoped that the state of "blindness" will bear new meaning for us all."
Les Levine states:"One of the aims of this exhibition is to create a situation where those who are unsighed can speak for themselves to others who are unsighted, to themselves, and to those of the sighted world.
The title I Am Not Blind represents the sentiment of those who were interviewed who felt that blindness is a state of mind; to be unsighted is not necessarily to be without vision of any kind. Many felt the word 'blindness' creates an erroneous impression of unsighted people. My concern both in this and other works is to use media to create new channels of experience and information. The work is not so much about how it looks and feels as it is about generating new information.
If I've learned anything from unsighted people, it is that in all matters except that of physical sight they feel pretty much the way you or I do, and their range of experiences is equally broad. I am reminded of a phrase used by one of the interviewees:'There are those who are unsighted and those who by choice refuse to see.'"
Deep Gossip, a video novel
In this neo-theatrical environment, the artist has painted the walls of the gallery in 4-foot wide TV color bars. In this setting, he has placed four sets of theatrical props and, by means of video, four performers.
The TV characters have an on-going dialogue about the New York art world and their own strategies for their careers and relationships in the art world. The characters remain anonymous, as only a close-up of their mouths is shown on the TV screens. The characters are J., C., P., and J. who speak candidly about their relationship and how they perceive each other?s ambitions in the art world.
J., "Jerry's very concerned about money, and the absence thereof. He complains bitterly about how he has to earn such a pittance doing construction work for all of his wealthy artist friends."
J., "It's like feminine guile, or something. Well, she's very good at track-following down every lead, like, she's like a detective. She just doesn't have any focus, so she's just sort of, uh, chases after anything that she thinks there's a possibility of scoring off of; she hustles after something or somebody, scores that something or someone, then it falls apart because there's no soul and no passion and no communication. So, I mean, she's left with emptiness and hustling all the time."
J., "Jerry is unwilling to put that kind of energy into his work. He puts it into being out in the scene, drinking a lot, abusing his energy, and then not having enough to do any solid worth with. Jerry had an attitude that if you weren't a maker of objects, i.e., an artist, then you didn't have any legitimacy in the world."
The four stage settings are (1) a yellow file cabinet, a blue desk with a TV on it, and a green chair behind it. (2) a green bed with a red chair and a yellow dresser with a TV on it. (3) a blue table with a TV on it and a blue chair and ottoman. The overall production acts to give information about the strategies and sociological condition which underlie the production of art. The TV characters are not real characters; they are televised surrogates who interact through TV screens against a theatrical backdrop.
Publications available:
I Am Not Blind, an information environment about unsighted people
Copyright Wadsworth Atheneum, 1976, 24 pages. $4 (including tax)
Deep Gossip, a video novel
Complete videotape transcript, 1979, 32 pages, $2.25 (including tax)
Recently published:
Media: The Bio-Tech Rehearsal for Leaving the Body
Copyright Alberta College of Art Gallery, 1979, 112 pages, $4
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