Liz Magic Laser:
Tell Me What You Want To Hear
April 6–May 18, 2013
DiverseWorks
4102 Fannin Street
Houston, TX 77004
Commissioned by DiverseWorks, Tell Me What You Want To Hear is a three-channel video installation and exhibition by Liz Magic Laser that explores the storytelling methods and interview techniques employed by today’s politicians and newsmakers to elicit public sympathy. The project was more than a year in the making and included individual interviews, group workshops, a live performance, and a special semester-long course at the University of Houston.
Utilizing the format of a political talk show, Tell Me What You What To Hear poses a dialogue between political experts, the television media, and the audience. As in previous works, Laser’s project staged a live situation in which an audience became a character in the performance and resulting video. Stemming from an extended residency supported by DiverseWorks and a special academic course sponsored by UH’s Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, Laser’s project explores how performance has become integrated into everyday life via television media and politics. Dissecting the emotive strategies used by politicians and newsmakers, Laser exposes how factual information about the state of our political, social, and economic reality is theatrically presented to the public. Tell Me What You Want To Hear is an extension of Laser’s previous work focused on the relationship between the news media and the public, but marks a new direction by enlisting actual journalists and politicians to perform, rather than actors.
About Liz Magic Laser
Liz Magic Laser’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Mälmo Konsthall, Mälmo, Sweden (2012); Swiss Institute with Forever & Today, Inc., New York (2012); The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2012); the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2012); Performa 11, New York (2011); MoMA PS 1, New York (2010); Artisterium, Tbilisi, Georgia (2009); and the Prague Biennale 4, Czech Republic (2009). Gallery exhibitions include Various Small Fires, Los Angeles (2012); The Pace Gallery, New York (2011); and Casey Kaplan, New York (2011).
About DiverseWorks
DiverseWorks is a non-profit art center in Houston, Texas dedicated to commissioning and presenting new visual, performing, and literary art. DiverseWorks is a place where the process of creating art is valued and where artists can test new ideas in the public arena. By encouraging the investigation of current artistic, cultural, and social issues, DiverseWorks builds, educates, and sustains audiences for contemporary art.
Support
DiverseWorks is a VAN Partner of the Visual Artists Network (VAN). This project is made possible in part through support from the Visual Artists Network Exhibition Residency and the Visual Artists Network Community Fund, which are programs of the National Performance Network. Major contributors are The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. For more information: www.npnweb.org.
Additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. DiverseWorks Season Sponsors are The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, The Houston Endowment, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Tell Me What You Want to Hear is presented in collaboration with the University of Houston’s Jack J. Valenti School of Communication.
