Louise Lawler. Slides by Night: Now That We Have Your Attention What Are We Going to Say?, 1985. Digital slides. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.
This projection work was originally on display only at night, visible through the storefront windows of Metro Pictures’ gallery in SoHo to passersby on the street when the gallery was closed. When the three images match up, the “jackpot” is Lawler’s photograph of classical sculptures shot at a plaster-cast museum. Equating the gallery that represents her with both a shop and a casino, Lawler effectively called the art market a commercial gamble, and by aligning her own work with the mechanisms of retail and gambling, prompted viewers to consider art’s position in relation to any other item up for sale.
This work is part of the exhibition Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology.
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