The 18th and 19th century French salons must have been a sight to see. Imagine dozens and dozens of artworks flush against each other, from floor to ceiling, everywhere. These salons are important for many reasons, but perhaps foremost among them is their role as the first major exhibitions to be open to the public, forever changing and democratizing the relationship between art and its viewers.
While the salons of 18th century France featured royal subjects and extravagant landscapes, Video Salon continues in the spirit of further democratization by featuring passersby as its subject and an ordinary urban street as its landscape. While the artworks in the salons took months if not years to produce, the imagery produced by Video Salon changes every second. Despite their differences, both salon formats are unified in the act of bringing the public closer into the fold of the art world.
Video Salon is a four channel interactive video installation of variable size made with custom software developed by the artist in OpenFrameworks. It was first shown from December 22nd, 2014 to January 11th, 2015 at Garis & Hahn located at 263 Bowery Street in New York City where it measured 15’ x 8’.
