UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT: VIDEO RENTAL STORE

November 11 - November 19

"Under New Management: Video Rental Store" is an exhibition that takes the form of a video rental store. Rather than offering popular entertainment, the store lends out artistsʼ videos.

The project employs the familiarity of the retail environment to connect to a broad audience while, repositioning the gallery’s intermediary role. The Video Rental Store positions the gallery as a conduit, giving viewers direct access to art, rather than limiting the space of engagement to the area within the gallery walls.

We are currently on the cusp of the dematerialization of the video rental business. Large corporate chains and family run businesses have shared in the same fate. The most unfortunate loss is that of the local independent operation that carried rare titles, cult favorites, documentaries, sections devoted to directors, experimental films, and foreign titles. Under New Management: Video Rental Store provides audiences easy access to content that is not produced strictly by Hollywood blockbuster aspirations.

The roles of artist, curator and audience can also be understood as akin to that of producer and consumer - terms that are typically applied to economics rather than to contemporary art and its audience. Under New Management employs this in an explicit manner to acknowledge that while cultural production is a mode of production with its own language and specificities, is not apart from or outside such systems.

The project is curated by Under New Management (UNM), the curatorial collective of

Suzanne Carte and Su-Ying Lee.