Flavin Flav (Cold Lampin’), 2002 Fluorescent and blacklight fixtures, lighting controller, motion sensor, audio CD (Public Enemy remix), PA system, amplifier
In Flavin Flav (Cold Lampin’) Dan Flavin’s quiet fluorescent tubes are given the voices of hip hop icons Flavor Flav and Chuck D (of Public Enemy fame). This motion-activated sound/light installation bridges 25 years of anti-establishment creation and examines the reciprocal relationship between artistic practice and political activism, and the role played by race in assigning relative cultural values to art.
The Harpo Marx Free-Jazz Jamboree, 2000 - 2001 Multi-channel audio/video installation played from 6 synchronized DVD’s on (6) 20” monitors, (6) mdf pedestal w/ built-in speakers, (20) raw speakers, sync-unit Running time: 5:00
The Harpo Marx Free Jazz Jamboree is inspired by the screen persona of 20th Century icon and clown extraordinaire, Harpo Marx. Though Harpo spent much of his adult life before the camera, he never uttered a word on film—yet he was able to communicate, through non-verbal sound, music and pantomime, more succinctly than his brother Groucho, whose persona was rooted in semantic play. The HMFJJ explores non-verbal sound and gesture as primary forms of communication, as well as the relationship of music and sound to Cinema. A connection is drawn to the transgressive, anti-establishment, spontaneous jazz form born in the early 1960’s, and emphasis is given to the development of a pure “sound language”, free of words but nonetheless full of meaning and expression.
Philadelphia-based artist Matthew Suib has exhibited installations, video and audio works and photographs internationally at venues including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Kunstwerke Berlin, Mercer Union (Toronto), The Corcoran Gallery of Art (D.C.) and PS1 Contemporary Art Center (NYC). His most recent exhibitions include Locally Localized Gravity at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), and the 2007 Moscow Biennale.
In 2007, Suib co-founded Screening, along with artist Nadia Hironaka. Screening is Philadelphia’s first gallery dedicated to the presentation of innovative and challenging works on video and film. Screening is a project devoted to expanding access to these media and exploring ways that moving image culture influences our understanding and experience of the world.
Suib is also a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellow, and a member of the Philadelphia artist collective Vox Populi, where he has exhibited since 2001.
Contact: msuib@hotmail.com
