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David Helm
Common Oddities (1988)
Projectors, slides, telephones, audio tape
1414 Monterey, 1st floor
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On the walls are projected outsized photographic portraits of popular heros of the entertainment world: Sylvester Stallone, Willie Nelson, Bill Cosby, Tom Selleck, Eddie Murphy, Michael Jackson, and Madonna.
The projectors, in full view, look like spotlights. At one of three phone stands, you listen to taped television and radio commercials extolling one product or another.
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"Thoughts on the Title
Common Oddities sounds like commodities. It is intended to make an association between a persona and the development of a persona as a product. The images in this work are all contemporary folk heroes, and the top twenty highest paid entertainers in the last two years. Their personas are all on the market via cinema, television, advertising, radio, and in concert. Common Oddities examines the idea of the role model as a necessary product in American culture. It is important that these images are big, and full of drama, like heroes should be.
"Thoughts on the Spotlight:
The projector is intended to resemble a spotlight. The function of a spotlight is to highlight, illuminate or identify a person, place or thing. Because of the spotlight¹s similarity to an eye, or cyclops, I often think of it as symbolic of the act of looking. The projectors are very heavy and sculptural while the images are more ephemeral.
"Thoughts on the Phones:
Through the phones are played the soundtracks to television commercials. They make reference to advertising, selling and buying. They also make reference to the psychological makeup of our culture. When I think about phones, all of the standard clichés come to mind: 'The next best thing to being there,' 'Let your fingers do the walking,' 'E.T. Phone home,' 'Phone first.'"
Selected Exhibitions
1988 Installation, SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, OH
1987 Baby, Baby, C.A.G.E. Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
1987 Art in the Anchorage, Creative Time Inc., Brooklyn, NY
1987 Infostructure, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
1986 Heroics, School of the Art Institute, North Wing Gallery, Chicago, IL
1985 Chicago International Art Exhibition, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
Référence: http://www.mattress.org/Catalogue/helm.html