A trailer for Stealing Beauty, Guy Ben-Ner’s family sitcom shot in Ikea during store hours, shown a year ago at Postmasters Gallery. I imagine that the reviewers were right that the full piece is a bit too long and cumbersome, but the trailer is super in my opinion.

Also on view at Postmasters was I’d give it to you if I could but I borrowed it, an amazing work I saw at skulptur projekte münster in Summer 07. One of my favorite pieces from skulptur projekte münster 07, the short video shows Ben-Ner and his two children hobbling together a bicycle from various pieces of readymade sculptures in a museum. The video ends with group taking a ride on the fashioned bicycle.

A direct reference to Münster and its reputation as the bicycle capital of Germany, the video/kinetic sculpture must be powered by the viewer. To see the video, the viewer must mount one of stationary bikes with video screens above the handlebars and pedal to see the narrative. The best part is that the speed and direction of one’s pedaling is correlated to the video, it will move forward in slow motion, normal speed, or fast forward, and also backwards. The work is at once fun, engaging, and accessible, while also providing an interesting critique on the market and use values of revered art objects, and the potential alienation of the museum and white cube.

Here are some images of us from Summer 07 making the video go: