Pittsburgh Biennial: Gertrude’s/LOT, Teresa Foley: The Dummy is Present
Friday, January 6, 2012, 7 p.m.
Pittsburgh Biennial Gertrude’s/LOT artist T. Foley performs with Hector the Dummy. In her performance, Foley manipulates the dummy on Chatroulette, and searches for unwitting partners online. Moving the action from the gallery space to the big screen (via projection), she invites the live audience to participate, magnifying transitory online exchanges, and taking spectators to a wholly unpredictable place.
Easy Pieces is an ongoing series of live and recorded performances featuring T. Foley and Hector the Dummy. The artist makes use of the original virtual being — a ventriloquist dummy — to speak to the ways individuals represent themselves online.
Two works will be presented at The Warhol Theater on January 6, 2012:
On Display (video, color, 7 mins)
Hector gives voice to otherwise disembodied Internet confessionals in monologues based on thousands of published men seeking women ads on craigslist. Performing the scenarios in mundane personal settings featured in posters’ photographs, the artist animates a range of masculine display-attempts that vie to attract the attention of women online.
The Dummy Is Present (live performance, 1 hour)
In this re-interpretation of Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present, 2010, random visitors to the Web site Chatroulette* may sit silently (or not) across from Hector the Dummy and the audience at The Warhol Theater, for a duration of their choosing.
In her performance, Foley manipulates the dummy on Chatroulette, and searches for unwitting partners online. Moving the action from the gallery space to the big screen (via projection), she invites the live audience to participate, magnifying transitory online exchanges, and taking spectators to a wholly unpredictable place.
*Chatroulette is a website that pairs strangers from around the world together for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website begin an online chat (video, audio and text) with another visitor who is chosen at random. At any point, either user may leave the current chat by initiating another random connection.
Additional Information
Due to the nature of the Chatroulette medium, adult content may be present during the performance.