jillian mayer in collaboration with eric schoenborn: erasey page
On view: March 21, 2012-August 12, 2012
Artist reception: April 6, 2012 at 8pm
Jillian Mayer in collaboration with Eric Schoenborn
Erasey Page
Web-based project
2012
Jillian Mayer’s practice investigates the intersections between art, media, entertainment and pop culture. She is best known for her successful viral video projects, which are intended to circulate in both the art context and the popular cultural arena of YouTube. Her collaborative video Scenic Jogging was one of 25 chosen from 23,000 submissions from 91 countries for the Guggenheim’s YouTube Play. A Biennial of Creative Video in October 2010.
Erasey Page is a newly commissioned web-based project that Mayer produced in collaboration with computer programmer, designer, and creative technologist Eric Schoenborn, which will be on view in the Bass Museum’s recently renovated project room space. The interactive website begins with a greeting from the artist as a pop-up spokes model who promotes visitors to live an internet-free and happy life by simply deleting the World Wide Web page by page. Participants are then encouraged to type in a web address of their choosing to erase. Afterwards, the spokesperson reappears to thank visitors for making the choice to regain their lives and to enjoy “a less computer interactive and a more real-time reactive lifestyle.”
Contemporary culture is profoundly informed by the ways we access, navigate and use information online, which is both celebrated and questioned by the artist. Lying somewhere between a parody of utopian ideals and an infomercial for a self-help product, Erasey Page humorously comments on one’s personal agency. The project becomes particularly poignant in light of recent activism and online blackouts in protest against the U.S. government’s proposed legislation—SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & PIPA (Project IP Act)—which aims to regulate user-contributed material on the Internet and block entire websites. However, Mayer’s proposition is more directed towards questioning our increasingly virtual lives (via social media, etc.) to playfully imagine a world without the Internet.
–Curated by Kristin Korolowicz, Knight Curatorial Fellow
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Jillian Mayer lives and works in Miami, FL. Her performances, videos and installations have been exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; and de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art, Miami. Recent solo projects include Family Matters at David Castillo Gallery (2011) and Love Trips at World Class Boxing, Miami (2011). Mayer was recently featured in the September/October issue of Art Papers and premiered a short film featuring Luther Campbell (Uncle Luke of the musical group 2 Live Crew) entitled Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke at the Sundance Film Festival and South by Southwest. She is represented by David Castillo Gallery.
Erasey Page collaborator Eric Schoenborn is a Miami-based graphic artist and creative technologist interested in design and social change. He has collaborated with a number of influential organizations on web community initiatives. His interdisciplinary projects have been featured in Sundance Interactive and South by Southwest.
Image courtesy of David Castillo Gallery
