Brice Dellsperger
13 February 2002, 10pm at Anthology Film Archives
14 February through 16 March 2002, at Team, 527 West 26th Street, NY, NY, 10001,
tel: 1.212.279.9219
Team will present a solo exhibition of video works by Brice Dellsperger from
the 14th of February through the 16th of March 2002. The gallery is located
at 527 West 26th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, on the ground
floor. In addition, the artist's feature-length "Body Double X" will
be screened at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue, at 10 pm on Wednesday,
the 13th of February.
Brice Dellsperger's show will be made up of three single-channel video projections.
Entitled "Body Double X," "Body Double 15" and "Body
Double 17," the pieces are reconstructions of scenes (or in the case of "X," the
entirety) of popular films. Dellsperger's remakes, which he began making in
1995, have taken their generic series title from the notorious Brian de Palma
picture. Dellsperger's works reconstitute segments of canonical postmodernity
in their dissections of such cultural touchstones as "Blow Out," "The
Empire Strikes Back" and "My Own Private Idaho."
In this New York show each piece mirrors and distorts a different original. "Body
Double 15" takes as its scaffold the famous museum pick-up sequence from "Dressed
to Kill." In this ten-minute piece the artist, dressed as a woman, plays
both halves of the trysting couple. The two separate performances were layered
together creating a narrative of pure narcissistic abandon where the artist
lusts after his own image in the hallowed halls of the museum. In his latest
piece, "Body Double 17," two sisters play all of the characters in
the roadhouse sequence from David Lynch's "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With
Me." The sisters, strikingly similar in appearance, disappear into one
another, as it becomes increasingly difficult to tell them apart. The reading
of gender, something that we take for granted in feature films, is negated,
as sexual identity becomes pure confusion.
The show1s centerpiece, made over a three-year period, is "Body Double
X," a feature length remake of Andrzej Zulawski's 1975 film "The
Important Thing is to Love." In "Body Double X" all of the speaking
parts are played by the same actor. Jean-Luc Verna, an artist based in Nice,
was photographed by Dellsperger to create a one hour 44 minute master which
syncs with the original film's original soundtrack. Dellsperger and Verna then
worked together to create all of the additional performances which were painstakingly
shot with blue-screen backgrounds to be later collaged into the master shots.
At times Verna appears on screen simultaneously portraying a dozen different
characters. Each one, however, is dressed and styled as a transvestite.
In addition to its repeated screenings at Team, "Body Double X" will
also be screened at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City's East Village.
Located at 32 Second Avenue, on the corner of Second Street, the screening
of Mr. Dellsperger's full-length piece will take place at 10 pm on Wednesday
the 13th of February. Mr. Dellsperger and Mr. Verna will attend the screening.
Tickets are required for admission and are available free of charge from the
gallery.
This is Mr. Dellsperger's first solo show in the United States and we are grateful
to Air de Paris for their assistance in its organization. Dellsperger's works
have been shown at the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Villa Arson, the Arnolfini
Gallery, Le Consortium, the Wiesbaden Kunstmuseum, and at the Musee d'Art Moderne
de la ville de Paris.
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm.
For further information and/or photographs, please call the gallery at 212.279.9219.
http://www.teamgallery.com