Richard Serra

I wanted to research Richard Serra's work in video. Before this class I had been familiar with his sculpture, but not his video work. I enjoyed the experimental nature of "Boomerang" and his exploration of this relatively new medium. It is such a far different medium than steel, that I find his success in it really fantastic. With his various pieces critiquing television, he uses an entertaining game show format paired with entertaining contemporaries: Spaulding Gray, Leo Castelli, and others.

I'm drawn to this idea because I too find popular culture and media one of the entities most in need of artistic and cultural critique. I found the time period interesting as news and television were becoming a more ubiquitous part of American culture.
"It's all a lot of shit. Listen, I know television consciousness was developed in the 60s. And yet, in 1974, people still accept what they see on their TV sets as valid information."
Unfortunately this has become more and more true. On the other-hand, Serra's generation also spawned this cynical distrust of media, authority, etc. while media and television continues to propel into a larger, more aggressive foe and promoter of the mainstream. From it, a subversive culture has been born to counteract mainstream's influence. Serra was one of the pioneers of this and today we continue the tradition of using television's own medium against it. I hope to do some of that in this class and know this would be a good forum for it.