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A 2010 work from Arcangel’s “Photoshop” series.
May 26: Cory Arcangel
May 2011
Nothing gets old faster than technology. If its rapid obsolescence is a
costly nuisance for those of us racing after the latest iPhone, it comes
with nothing but benefits for 33-year-old artist and electronic musician
Cory Arcangel. This geek for all seasons finds his material in the
digital junk pile. Take the self-playing—and self-pitying—computer
bowling games at the center of “Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools,” an exhibition
of the sometime hacker’s latest video manipulations at New York’s
Whitney Museum of American Art (May 26 to September 11). The
multichannel bowling installation emphasizes technology’s dead-end
faddishness by moving from the game’s 1978 Atari version to the present.
While each generation improves on the last, all score only hapless
gutter balls. “It’s 30 years of being let down—30 years of failed
effort,” says Arcangel. His work often links historical peaks in music
and art with advances in digital systems. But living in the virtual
world can have troubling consequences: “You get swallowed up in a black
hole.” For all its pathos and virtuosity, Arcangel’s art has a certain
dry humor. His re-creation of Paganini’s “Caprice No. 5,” also in the
show, uses notes from amateur metal-guitar videos on YouTube. “I went to
a lot of trouble to do something clumsy and knock-kneed with all this
amazing technology,” he explains. “But I’m an artist, so my ideas tend
to be impractical.”
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