Joel Coen

Escaping the gallery scene, containers were set up by DIVA street-side, featuring digital art pieces by various artists. One that was particularly interesting to me was a container with two pieces by Joel Coen. Upon entering, one encountered a sculpture of a cross made up of dozens of small digital television screens that were all showing different television programs. The cross is an immediate connection to religion, and speaks about our culture's addiction to The Tube. The devotion to television and movies in the United States is extreme, and that piece was a straightforward message about that. Further inside, three projectors were set up, displaying a bizarre film. Each projector showed a different angle of the action, which centered around a shaved and naked man. This oafish fellow stumbled through what looked like a cave, where dozens of other shaved people lay bloated and immobilized on stretchers, shelves, or on the ground. Another section of this piece depicted the man sleeping or otherwise unconscious in a large crib, which slowly filled up with a strange murky water until he was floating, in the fetal position, in the dark liquid.

I believe these pieces were tied together in concept, that of American over-indulgence in entertainment and the service industry (which is now the highest-profiting industry in the country). The dark images of the stumbling or unconscious man possibly represented our plight as we allow the will of others to govern our lives for the sake of ease, forever numbing the otherwise creative and unique minds with the capacity to flourish that each individual possesses.