Performance Space 

Curated by John Pilson and Claudia Altman-Siegel
Produced by Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery

Participating artists include: Jeffrey Scher, James Yamada, Alix Pearlstein, Laurel Nakadate, Michael Almereyda, An-My Le, Jenny Drumgoole, Guy Richards Smit, Chris Miner, Janet Cardiff and George Burres Miller and John Pilson.

The Contemporary Arts Center is proud to present Idiot Joy Showland, a program of artist films and videos. What is the current state of avant-garde film? Has video art become the primary arena in which film concepts are challenged? How does our absorption of this material change when we see it on a big screen in a gallery as compared to watching it on the monitor?

One of the goals of this presentation is to explore the content and context of current video art. Rather than presenting work around a specific theme, the short films in this show vary considerably and cover a tremendous range of topics, conventions and concepts. The range in age and aesthetics of the invited artists ensures that each piece is radically different. The uniting factor is that each of these films is short; most of them under five minutes.

Guy Richards Smit, Makin' Love in the Sunshine, 2007, 5 min. DVD. Courtesy of the artist.