Steve Davis: American Album
Artist(s):
Title:
- American Album
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 1996
Category:
Artist Statement:
With this project, I am less concerned with the inherent bias of television and the many talk shows it delivers than I am with the personal needs of individuals to use the medium to make human connections with their national and global communities. Willingly presented in an intimate light, often at the expense of appearing weak, offensive, or pathetic, we volunteer to simplify and categorize ourselves in an effort to earn a definable, indexable place within the American social landscape. Television is the mediator of choice. As a mediator, it offers the safety of time and distance between the subject and the rest of the world, facilitating or perhaps demanding the release of personal privacy.
Conversely, living in public, in unmediated real time and space, we maintain distance and preserve privacy. Personal connection with community is absent. There are no clearly defined labels. Identity and location within our world are open to shifts, conjectures, and ambiguity.
What was once private (secrets, vulnerabilities, and anger) are now cataloged and pronounced from the highest mountain, while our public selves have reverted to stealth mode.
