Co-Existing and Co-Llaborating

March 30, 2010 - April 2, 2010

Aurora Picture Show

The point between love and hate is a fine line when you live and work with your partner. The shared physical space of the home and mental space of love and relationships has tremendous influences on the art-making process, development and professional drive of individuals. As part of Fotofest’s Biennial event, Aurora will feature the work of six collaborative teams of artists, including Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Darrin Martin and Jamil Hellu, Potter Belmar Labs, Duke and Battersby, Voshardt and Humphrey and Dana and Travis Hanmer, this program highlights some of the video art world’s better known teams who know the ups and downs of living and working together during the creative process.


Works Shown

I'll Replace You

2008, video, color, sound

For this project the McCoys hired fifty actors to replace them in executing the many responsibilities they undertake every day. The resulting 15 minutes long video zeroes in on the actor, the idea of typecasting, and the fragmentation of life. Dispensing with Hollywood cornerstone of continuity for each of the "roles" the McCoys play in life (artist, professor, parent, friend, spouse), they cast five different actors. They staged scenes in and around their real lives. Often hilariously miscast and self-stereotyped, the actors play Jennifer and Kevin, interacting with their real children, students, and colleagues in improvised scenes set in their house, studio, and universities. In the editing, the film intercuts the different actors' interpretations of the McCoys' lives. The story unfolds as a kind of "day in the life". It begins in the morning with the family waking up, having breakfast, and leaving the house. Coffee with friends, work in the studio, critiques with students, talking with curators, playtime with kids, dinner out, and after dinner drinks are all edited together into one impossible day. The video underlines the complexity of contemporary life, made up as it is by millions of tiny gestures.