Paul Garrin
Encyclopedia
Paul Garrin, is best known as a politically active video artist from the 1990s. His most famous work is Man with a Video Camera (Fuck Vertov), 1989, in which he videotapes a riot
in Tompkins Square Park
in New York City's Lower East Side
. The video records police officers with covered badge numbers beating protesters, and Garrin himself being pulled off a van and assaulted for shooting video tape. In the video, Garrin proposes a new revolution is coming; a reverse Big Brother state in which citizens armed with camcorders are continually watching the government. Another well known work is Free Society
, 1988, an intensely processed video using images representative of a police state.
Garrin was an artist living and working in the Lower East Side during its last days of creative production. His work straddled a gap between the highest technology available and hands-on street video, all for a common political cause. Later on, Garrin collaborated with video art superstar Nam June Paik
, producing numerous works between 1982 and 1996.
Since the 1990s, Garrin has carried his politicized style of action artmaking onto the internet, founding companies and projects that work to free the internet from corporate and government control.
By Any Means Necessary, 1990
Free Society, 1988
Home(less) Is Where The Revolution Is, 1990
Man with a Video Camera, 1989
Reverse Big Brother, 1990
White Devil, 1992-1993
Yuppie Ghetto with Wedding, 1989-1990
Garrin's works have been shown at the Lyon Biennial, 1995, the Kwangju Biennial, 1995, the Sao Paolo Biennial, 1994, and the Prix Ars Electronica
, 1997. His work has been represented by Holly Solomon Gallery in New York City, and is represented in many museum collections.
Tompkins Square Park Police Riot
The Tompkins Square Park Riot occurred on August 6–August 7, 1988 in New York City's Tompkins Square Park. Groups of "drug pushers, homeless people and young people known as 'skinheads'" had largely taken over the East Village park, but the neighborhood was divided about what, if anything,...
in Tompkins Square Park
Tompkins Square Park
Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the...
in New York City's Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
. The video records police officers with covered badge numbers beating protesters, and Garrin himself being pulled off a van and assaulted for shooting video tape. In the video, Garrin proposes a new revolution is coming; a reverse Big Brother state in which citizens armed with camcorders are continually watching the government. Another well known work is Free Society
Free Society
Free Society was a major anarchist newspaper in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries...
, 1988, an intensely processed video using images representative of a police state.
Garrin was an artist living and working in the Lower East Side during its last days of creative production. His work straddled a gap between the highest technology available and hands-on street video, all for a common political cause. Later on, Garrin collaborated with video art superstar Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
, producing numerous works between 1982 and 1996.
Since the 1990s, Garrin has carried his politicized style of action artmaking onto the internet, founding companies and projects that work to free the internet from corporate and government control.
Videography
Border Patrol, 1994-1996By Any Means Necessary, 1990
Free Society, 1988
Home(less) Is Where The Revolution Is, 1990
Man with a Video Camera, 1989
Reverse Big Brother, 1990
White Devil, 1992-1993
Yuppie Ghetto with Wedding, 1989-1990
Garrin's works have been shown at the Lyon Biennial, 1995, the Kwangju Biennial, 1995, the Sao Paolo Biennial, 1994, and the Prix Ars Electronica
Prix Ars Electronica
The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music...
, 1997. His work has been represented by Holly Solomon Gallery in New York City, and is represented in many museum collections.
External links
- Paul Garrin in the Video Data Bank