Critical Writing Index

Dan Graham and Mowry Baden, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles

by Peter Plagens

Artforum, Dec. 1975, v. 14, no. 4, p. 77

An unfavourable review, labeling Graham's meditations on consciousness as condescending and too trendy to be substantial. Present Continuous Pasts consists of a mirrored room equipped with a surveillance camera and monitor that permits the viewer to see himself as an image, as a reflection and as a combination of both. The author finds this piece clinical and over-intellectualized, and its goal of influencing the viewer's future actions by presenting them as part of a composition as an attempt that tries unsuccessfully to channel the viewer into a single mode of reception. Yesterday/Today consists of a monitor that displays a visual real-time record of an adjacent lounge while playing audio recorded the same time the day before. Unfortunately, little appears to go on in the lounge at anytime, and so the piece makes a dull space even more boring by presenting it as something worthy of detailed viewing.

ITEM 1975.017 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Yesterday/TodayDan Graham

Present Continuous PastsDan Graham