JACOB CIOCCI & JESSICA CIOCCI (of Paper Rad)
Dark Side of Light, 2008 (PREDRIVE: After Technology)
Mixed media
Dark Side of Light was originally conceived as an analog version (sans video and technology) of a media-saturated Web site, such as Paper Rad's own internet home, but the conceptual frame of the piece changed as Jessica and Jacob Ciocci (sister and brother team) collaborated on-site at the Mattress Factory. Often, passersby would be selling second-hand wares (i.e. televisions & radios) and objects could be found nearby, abandoned on the street. A selection of these purchased and found items is incorporated into the installation.
As Jessica recounts: “first day of arriving/found speaker on street and mickey mouse sleeping bag on ground which is [now] laying prone to speaker in the [installation] space/both [found] within one block of Mattress Factory.” Likewise, on the day before the opening, “a man walked by with a shopping cart trying to sell a TV” — there were no takers, except Jessica. She was already working with used televisions — stacking them, along with speakers into a mini Babylonian pile of partial working screens and inconsistent amplification. Jacob followed suit, but gleaned most of his objects from his own thrift store collection, i. e. old VHS tapes, kept in their boxes and simply stacked in a corner, a slightly ripped, old Magic Eye poster, a tin of loose pocket change.
Paper Rad videos abound (six total) flashing more detritus, appropriated from popular TV shows (especially children’s programs), cartoons, advertisements, and live performances. In the larger Aquos screen work (the only new monitor that doesn’t have its frame smashed), Jessica’s hand, dipped in day-glo green paint floats by as the recurring, “Hand of God” — this video image is mirrored in a giant floor sculpture on the other side of the room. As Jacob recounts, “I actually wanted to name the whole installation Entertainment Center, because I felt like what Jessica was making was a weird dystopian entertainment center — with the same kind of imagery that I use in my paintings and video, “light entertainment,” or “fluff”—the disposable media aimed at kids, but that ends up in thrift stores because it was never used or watched.”
The text above was written by guest-curator Melissa Ragona. PREDRIVE: After Technology runs through April 5, 2009.
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Posted by JEFFREY
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