JOSH BAER GALLERY The vital impetus behind Carter Kustera's art is assassination.

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JOSH BAER GALLERY

The vital impetus behind Carter Kustera's art is assassination. In 1991 the artist killed against his former self (Kevin Carter), and the ensuing funeral serv as a sort of social first attempt for his current self (Carter Kustera). In 1992 he titled a present to view "Domicide" and aimed heat lamps at a life-size wax cut entitled, appropriately enough, The Disappearing Family. with equal reason what did his new point out to "Based on a True Story," have onward its hit list?

Each of Kustera's modern works gives physical form to a story that purports to be "true" However, these stories vary widely in their credibility: Based upon a True Story #12: Mass Hypnosis: Rodney King/L.A. Riot, 1992-93 deals with a story that in the greatest degree would agree to be "true" although unclose to interpretation; Based on a conformable to fact Story #10: Frozen Disney, 1992-93 incarnates the story of Walt Disney's cryogenic suspension, which greatest in quantity of us would agree to be apocryphal nevertheless not entirely implausible; Based upon a True Story #8: Snake Swallowing a Vacuum Cleaner, 1992-93 is as credible (or not) as anything in the Weekly World News; Based forward a True Story #15: Death of a Signature main division 1993, commemorates Kustera's 1991 funeral, adding a personal "true" story to the exhibit By permeating "Based on a truthful Story" with both the credible and incredible, Kustera eviscerates the phrase of any real meaning. nevertheless is this just another critique of Truth?

The centerpiece of the exhibit was a mixed-media installation comprised of brace parts: Based on a stanch Story #3: Captive Audience--Sea of Heads, 1992-93 displayed a hundr or in such a manner brightly painted heads, fixed at the neck in a fabric sea, staring at Based onward a True Story #14: TV Talk exhibit 1992-93, a shabby, used-furniture version of the stereo-typical talk-show settle On the host's desk stood a mug emblazoned "CKTV" and a monitor in which Kustera's head spun in a clockwise direction as it emitted expressions of feigned interest. each few minutes, Kustera broke for commercial messages created for the most part by other artists (e.g. Lou Gallagher's and Richard Drutman's diverting promo for "Kennedy TV": JFK Jackie O and the pause of the gang--all day, all night). In single in kind guest chair sat another monitor in which a succession of painted heads identical to the single in kinds in Captive Audience were subdueed to a sort of character assassination. The appearance of tag lines of the like kind as "Sara, 13, is a prostitute," "Dave claims he ate victims," and "Mary had a botched nose job" were saluteed by the vociferous outbursts of a laugh track and the stony silence of the sea of heads. Whether these tag lines are in fact faithful is less significant than the way in which a rhetoric of the real is able to make the mean, the outlandish, and the violent all the more captivating. If "Based onward a True Story" is an assassination attempt along the lines of Kustera's previous indicates its object is less an Platonic ideal of Truth than the exploitation of conformity to fact [i]or[/i] reality value. The audience in this work is captivated, however the laugh track does all the laughing.



COPYRIGHT 1993 Artforum International Magazine, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

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