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Sarah Cook was invited to select an artist to show a short video online at Bielefelder Kunstverein.
»BCAST« (2009) by ADAM SHECTER is online NOW until October 13, 2009, as part of the exhibition series »SUBJECTIVE PROJECTIONS«BIELEFELDER KUNSTVEREIN SHOWS »BCAST« (2009) BY ADAM SHECTER AS PART OF THE EXHIBITIONS SERIES »SUBJECTIVE PROJECTIONS«

SEPTEMBER 23 – OCTOBER 13, 2009

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ADAM SHECTER
»BCAST«, 2009
Video, colour, sound, 10:01 min
(original version 19:35 min.)
Courtesy the artist and Eleven Rivington Gallery, New York

Animation: Adam Shecter
Sound: Justin Luchter
Costumes: Ricarda Burke & Adam Shecter

Invited by Sarah Cook (Curator and researcher of media art, CRUMB / University of Sunderland)

VIDEO ONLINE:
http://www.bielefelder-kunstverein.de/en/exhibitions/subjective-projections/adam-shecter.html

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On June 12 2009 television stations across the United States turned off
their analog signals, moving to digital-only broadcasting. »BCAST« –
created by Adam Shecter during a residency with Brooklyn Public Television
(BCAT) – was shown in an installation in a television Superstore in
Brooklyn in the 2 weeks preceding the »digital transition«. It is an
improvisation as well as a compilation, in a manic channel-flipping
fashion, of sketches and music videos, mixing animations with video footage
of people dressed as cartoon-like characters. Shecter writes that he made
the work in response to television’s changing nature and »the end of the
simultaneous event«, witnessed by the rise of TV on demand, micro- or niche
channels, video file-sharing online, and the related erosion of audiences
for public access TV programming.

Like after-school interludes remade for a jaded art world audience,
Shecter’s choice of material is beguilingly entertaining and aesthetically
serious. Cartoon action (rats riding yellow birds) vies for attention
against cartoon romance and cartoon violence (a heart and a brain fight
each other with wooden bats). Which came first, the drawing or the sound
effect? A clock chiming the hour, a piece of paper flapping in the wind, a
dog growling, a hammer hitting the wall. Snippets of music reminiscent of
TV theme tunes and sitcom laughter tracks have been layered with sounds
from nature shows - birdsong and rain (the soundtrack was cut to fit the
animations by Justin Luchter).

Shecter calls the five to thirty-second long vignettes »quotidian trials«
»of action and adventure, heroes and villains, monsters and magic«. He
admits they were made in a Gonzo style – unfiltered, unedited – over the
course of a year using Flash animation and free or easily accessible
consumer equipment, such as flip cameras, a laptop, and wireless Internet
access.

Watching »BCAST« is like re-scanning 100 years of analog television
broadcasts while watching the outcome of thousands of hours spent surfing
the web. It is the static in the gap between the analog and the digital,
seeking out an unintended audience, an accidental viewer. So it is
perfectly suited to be watched both on a television monitor and amidst the
distractions of the web (in addition to the version screened here, the
original longer cut is online at http://vimeo.com/4972158).

Website of the artist: http://theworldofadam.com

Text: Sarah Cook

With its new exhibition platform »Subjective Projections« (March 2009 –
March 2010), the Bielefelder Kunstverein is seeking to accommodate the
dominance of moving images and is presenting an artistic video every three
weeks via different channels: via a monitor in the building as well as
through the website of the Kunstverein. In this way, the Bielefelder
Kunstverein seeks to be also seen outside of its official opening hours as
a site for contemporary art. Curators and critics are invited to suggest a
video each for internationally active artists and then to discuss them.

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For its artistic program 2009 Bielefelder Kunstverein received
the award JUMP by Kunststiftung NRW.

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