A few weeks ago, the artist Cory Arcangel celebrated his 33rd birthday on the fourth floor of Manhattan’s Whitney Museum, surrounded by critics, museum VIPs and assorted gallery representatives and publicists. His first solo show at the museum, “Pro Tools,” was set to open the next day. This was the press preview. As people crowded around the artist to congratulate him, a man approached a nearby artwork, “Masters” (2011), a golf video game modified so that no matter how the user swings the provided club, the ball refuses to go in the hole. The man picked up the putter, took a swing, and watched on a monitor as the ball veered sharply to the right of its intended target. As the game reset, so did he, carefully lining up his putt — only to see the ball miss again. In consternation, he looked up. “What’s wrong with this thing?”
This is a question you could ask about most of Arcangel’s work. Whether it is a series of bowling video games rigged to throw only gutter balls (“Various Self Playing Bowling Games,” 2011), a suite of “Seinfeld” episodes edited to show only scenes in which Kramer discusses his idea for a coffee table book about coffee tables (“There’s Always One at Every Party,” 2010), or a sculptural array of store display racks rigged to move in concert (“Research in Motion [Kinetic Sculpture #6],” 2011), Arcangel’s art is less a matter of making things than of intervening in things that are already made. “I’m someone who plays pranks,” he said.
Born in Buffalo, trained at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and deeply fluent in the various shorthand languages spoken online, on television and on the radio, Arcangel and his work crystallize his generation’s obsession with pop culture and the weird obsolete chunks — forgotten YouTube videos, outmoded consumer electronics — that culture quickly leaves behind.
The Daily spoke with the artist a few days after his show opened about his fascination with failed technologies, his love for the little-remembered Ralph Macchio film “Crossroads,” and why every game “Pro Tools” has to offer is rigged.
This is a question you could ask about most of Arcangel’s work. Whether it is a series of bowling video games rigged to throw only gutter balls (“Various Self Playing Bowling Games,” 2011), a suite of “Seinfeld” episodes edited to show only scenes in which Kramer discusses his idea for a coffee table book about coffee tables (“There’s Always One at Every Party,” 2010), or a sculptural array of store display racks rigged to move in concert (“Research in Motion [Kinetic Sculpture #6],” 2011), Arcangel’s art is less a matter of making things than of intervening in things that are already made. “I’m someone who plays pranks,” he said.
Born in Buffalo, trained at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and deeply fluent in the various shorthand languages spoken online, on television and on the radio, Arcangel and his work crystallize his generation’s obsession with pop culture and the weird obsolete chunks — forgotten YouTube videos, outmoded consumer electronics — that culture quickly leaves behind.
The Daily spoke with the artist a few days after his show opened about his fascination with failed technologies, his love for the little-remembered Ralph Macchio film “Crossroads,” and why every game “Pro Tools” has to offer is rigged.
